o   c 


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H.l.H.    I'RINCE  CIIING. 


THROUGH 
HIDDEN  SHENSI 


BY 

FRANCIS    H.    NICHOLS 


ILLUSTRATED   FROM    PHOTOGRAPHS 
TAKEN   BY  AND   FOR  THE   AUTHOR 


CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S    SONS 
NEW  YORK: ::::::::::::::::  1902 


Copyright,  1902,  by 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


Published,  October,  1902 


TROW  DIRECTORY 

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PREFACE 

S  HEN  SI  is  a  naturally  gray  land  of  dim  begin- 
nings. Most  of  it  is  in  the  plain  of  Northern 
Asia.  Mountains,  well-nigh  impenetrable,  sepa- 
rate Shensi  from  the  valleys  of  the  South.  It  is  a 
land  that  has  lingered  far  from  world  highways. 
On  the  plain  and  in  the  mountains  live  a  people 
who  have  always  been  as  they  are  now ;  who  are  so 
continuously  old  that  on  first  acquaintance  they 
appear  dull  from  sheer  lack  of  any  trace  of  racial 
youthfulness. 

But  sifted  into  the  •  substratum  of  their  char- 
acter are  grains  of  gold  which  have  been  brought 
down  on  the  stream  of  time  from  prehistoric 
sources,  and  which  gleam  with  an  added  lustre 
because  of  the  common  clay  in  which  they  are 
imbedded. 

I  had  all  the  prejudices  of  the  foreigner  when 
I  first  crossed  the  gray  plain  and  met  the  old  race. 
They  seemed  then  only  a  perpetuation  of  the  com- 
monplace ;  but  as  I  went  in  and  out  among  them 
they  began  to  interest  me.     I  found  that  they  had 

vii 


PREFACE 

achieved  much,  but  were  free  from  boasting  ;  that 
they  loved  their  own  kind  of  learning ;  that  their 
pride  was  tempered  by  reason  and  by  the  isolated 
experience  of  their  country  ;  that  they  strove  to  do 
right  as  they  saw  the  right ;  that  they  did  not 
covet,  and  that  because  they  had  always  honoured 
their  fathers  and  their  mothers  their  days  had  been 
longer  in  their  land  than  had  been  the  days  of  any 
other  race  on  earth.  I  came  to  respect  their  eter- 
nity and  to  admire  their  love  of  their  parents,  their 
ancestors,  and  their  past. 

The  practical  character  of  the  work  I  had  to 
do  left  little  room  for  the  play  of  my  prejudices. 
I  was  denied  the  privilege  of  foreign  condescen- 
sion. I  could  not  remain  on  a  height  contemplat- 
ing the  people  below  me.  I  was  compelled  to 
meet  them  on  their  own  ancient  plain.  As  a  re- 
sult I  came  to  see  things  in  some  measure  through 
their  eyes  and  to  accept  their  point  of  view. 

I  appreciated  the  seeming  absurdity  of  a  mod- 
ern's attempt  to  pass  the  torch  of  an  imported 
civilisation  to  a  land  where  its  own  had  always 
burned.  I  began  to  look  upon  Homeric  literature 
as  recent,  and  to  regard  as  experimental  a  theory 
of  government  that  began  only  with  Magna  Charta. 

I  have  never  been  able  to  depart  wholly  from 
this  Shensi  point  of  view.  It  may  have  found 
unconscious  expression  in  the  following  account  of 

viii 


PREFACE 

my  travels,  and  in  some  descriptions  of  men  and 
things.  For  the  fault  of  the  absence  from  these 
pages  of  both  a  militant  and  a  missionary  spirit,  let 
me  urge  in  extenuation  that  this  narrative  offers  no 
solutions  of  Chinese  problems,  points  no  morals, 
and  draws  no  conclusions.  It  is  an  attempt  at  a 
picture  of  Oldest  China  and  its  people  as  I  saw 
them  in  their  land — sowing,  reaping,  toiling,  think- 
ing, and  misjudging  the  world  beyond  their  moun- 
tains as  persistently  as  that  world  misjudges  them. 


A  WORD  about  the  illustrations  in  this  book. 
The  pictures  of  scenes  in  Sian  were  taken 
for  me  by  a  native  photographer  in  that  city. 
From  him  also  I  purchased  the  photograph  of  the 
temple  at  Hua  ih  and  the  portraits  of  Rung  Lu 
and  the  Governor  of  Shensi. 

"  The  Mountain  Chair ;  the  Opium  Refuge," 
and  "  The  Opium  Beggar  "  were  given  to  me  by 
Dr.  Edwards  of  Shansi,  whose  guest  I  was  in  Tai 
Yuan. 

The  photograph  of  the  "  Gorge  of  the  Wei 
Ho  "  was  taken  for  Mr.  Duncan  as  a  preliminary 
exhibit  to  the  provincial  government  of  Shensi  of 
his  plan  for  the  irrigation  of  the  Plain  of  Sian. 

For  the  pictures  of  Han  River  boats  I  am 
indebted    to    Rev.    Mr.    Harquist   of    Shensi,  who 

ix 


PREFACE 

kindly  obtained  them  for  me  from  a  missionary  in 
Fan  Ching. 

All  the  rest  of  the  illustrations  are  the  result 
of  a  Chinese  sun  upon  the  author's  own  camera 
films.  An  especial  interest  attaches  to  the  frontis- 
piece portrait  of  Prince  Ching,  from  His  High- 
ness's  declaration  to  me  that  it  was  the  only  pho- 
tograph of  him  ever  taken. 


I  WISH  to  make  grateful  acknowledgment: — 
To  my  friend,  Dr.  Louis  Klopsch,  proprie- 
tor of  The  Christian  Herald,  for  his  permission  to 
reproduce  in  this  volume  photographs  taken  while 
representing  him  in  Shensi. 

To  Dr.  W.  A.  P.  Martin,  author  of  "The 
Lore  of  Cathay,"  for  his  great  kindness  in  trans- 
lating for  me  the  inscriptions  of  Shensi  tablets  that 
are  reproduced  in  these  pages. 

To  Wang,  to  missionaries,  to  mandarins,  and 
to  others  who  helped  me  on  my  way. 

New  York,  August,  1902. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAGES 

Starting 1-9 

Location  and  size  of  Shensi,  i.  Its  age  and  isolation,  i.  Selection 
of  Sian  as  the  city  of  the  Imperial  Exile,  i.  Shensi's  intense  hatred  of 
the  foreigner,  i.  The  Christian  Herald  {^ixmnc  fund,  i.  My  arrival  in 
Pekin,  2.  Distance  between  Pekin  and  Sian  an  interval  of  silence,  2. 
Necessary  for  me  to  go  to  Shensi,  2.  Warnings  of  the  dangers  of  the 
journey,  2.  Shansi  massacres  of  missionaries,  2.  My  lack  of  extraor- 
dinary bravery,  3.  Confidence  that  no  trouble  awaited  me,  3.  China's 
pledge  to  the  allied  Governments,  3.  My  decision  to  take  the  Chinese 
at  their  word,  3.  Obtaining  Chinese  Government  credentials,  3.  Pass- 
ports from  Prince  Ching,  4.  A  Chinese  sand-storm,  4.  Penetrating 
and  overpowering,  4.  Arrival  at  residence  of  His  Highness,  4.  Prince 
Ching  foremost  figure  in  China  to-day,  5.  His  rank  and  ability,  5. 
His  appearance,  5.  His  card,  6.  Commonplace  appearance  of  an 
"open  sesame"  to  China,  6.  Adapting  my  American  passport,  6. 
Taking  a  photograph  of  His  Highness,  7.  My  Chinese  name,  7.  My 
passport  and  its  seals,  7.  Value  of  Prince  Ching's  card,  7.  A  Chris- 
tian cook,  7.  Need  of  an  interpreter  and  guide,  7.  First  meeting 
with  Wang,  8.  His  ignorance  of  Shensi,  8.  Starting  from  Chen  Men 
Gate,  8.     Off  for  the  land  of  Fuhi,  9. 


CHAPTER  n. 
Pekin  to  Paoting 10-29 

The  road  to  Sian,  lo.  Shansi  and  Shensi  the  land  of  beginnings, 
10.  Similarity  of  names  in  native  nomenclature,  lo.  Four  stages  of 
the  journey,  lo.  Struggles  of  the  railroad  through  Chili,  ii.  An 
international  effort,  ii.  Polyglot  railway  construction,  ii.  Chinese 
recent  pride  in  the  railway,  ii.  Heterogeneous  trains  and  freight,  12. 
The  beginning  of  a  railroad  across  China,  12.  Paralleling  an  old 
high  road,  12.  Paoting  and  its  sand  spile  railroad  station,  12.  Eager- 
ness of  cart-drivers,  13.  A  dusty  ''humbling,"  13.  Former  mission- 
ary activity  of  Paoting,  13.  Sudden  rising  of  Boxer  storm,  13.  Put- 
ting out  "foreign  light,"  14.  Massacre  of  missionaries,  14.  The 
graves  in  the  cabbage  field,  14.  The  punishment  of  Paoting,  14. 
"Punitive"  columns,  15  Futility  of  opposition  to  Gospel,  15.  The 
destruction    of    Paoting's    idols,    15.     Accessibility    of    Paoting    from 

xi 


CONTENTS 

PAGBa 

Pekin  to  PaOTING — continued 10-29 

Pekin  the  reason  of  the  punishment,  15.  The  American  missionary  of 
Paoting,  16.  The  spirit  of  forgiveness  that  animated  his  life,  16. 
Gratitude  of  a  Buddhist  Priest,  16.  A  Christian  who  saved  a  heathen 
temple,  17.  Residence  of  the  viceroy  of  Chili,  17.  Chou  Fu  the 
Fantai,  17.  My  meeting  with  him,  18.  His  advice,  18.  His  observa- 
tions on  the  carrying  of  firearms,  18.  Ting  the  railroad  terminus,  19. 
Meeting  first  escort,  19.  Off  across  Chili,  19.  System  of  travel  in 
China,  19.  Discovery  of  error  in  treaty  port  opinion  of  Chinese,  19. 
The  protection  afforded  by  Prince  Ching's  card,  20.  A  system  of  re- 
sponsibility for  the  traveller's  safety,  20.  Protected  but  never  "  person- 
ally conducted,"  21.  A  wenshao,  a  bill  of  lading  for  the  traveller,  21. 
Its  description  of  his  credentials  and  his  needs,  21.  Sealed  by  the 
mandarin  who  receives  it,  21.  Immunity  from  inns  conferred  by  the 
wenshao,  23.  Horrors  of  Chinese  inns,  22.  Their  inhospitable  court- 
yards, 22.  Braying  mules  and  domesticated  hogs,  23.  Kung  kwans ; 
official  hotels,  23.  The  banchaiti  and  his  duties,  23.  Age  of  kung 
kwans  and  their  architecture,  24.  The  motif  of  right  and  left,  24.  The 
inferiority  of  the  right  hand,  24.  Necessity  of  occupying  left-hand  room 
in  kung  kwan,  25.  Brick  beds  peculiarity  of  China,  25.  The  art  of 
sleeping  on  them,  25.  Sleeping  pookas,  25.  A  native  explanation  of 
the  reason  for  their  discomforts,  26.  Philosophy  in  the  construction  of 
brick  beds,  26.  Kung  kwan  cooking  and  menus,  26.  Foreign  prej- 
udice against  Chinese  food,  26.  Vegetarian  tendency  and  hygienic 
recipes,  26.  A  kung  kwan  bill-of-fare,  27.  Travelling  from  sunrise 
to  sunset,  27.  The  banchaiti's  method  of  presenting  his  bill,  27.  The 
mafu,  announcing  the  traveller's  approach,  28.  Taels,  the  bullion  sil- 
ver currency  of  China,  28.  Money  that  is  weighed  and  not  counted, 
28.  Puzzling  differences  in  scales  and  weight,  28.  Ancient  knowledge 
of  the  decimal  system,  28.     Decimals  in  the  Chou  dynasty,  29. 


CHAPTER  III. 
Across  Chili 30-43 

The  Plain  of  Chili,  30.  The  roads  of  the  Plain,  30.  Chili  roads 
private  property,  30.  The  road's  condition  nobody's  business,  30. 
Straw  hats  in  November,  31.  Liability  to  sunstroke,  31.  A  vast  vege- 
table garden,  31.  The  small  size  of  a  Chili  farm,  31.  Two  crops  every 
year,  31.  Cotton  and  tobacco  in  a  temperate  climate,  31.  Donkey 
operated  wells,  31.  Primitive  artesian  principles,  31.  The  oblivious, 
blinded  well  donkey,  32.  Pyramidal  brick  mile-stones,  32.  Chinese 
Li ;  a  measure  of  time,  not  of  distance,  32.  Road-side  monuments  and 
their  carvings,  32.  Memorials  of  widows,  33.  Imperial  funds  for 
recognising  the  virtue  of  a  widow  who  does  not  marry  again,  33.  Ab- 
sence of  isolated  farm-houses ;  scarcity  of  arable  land,  33.  Village 
houses  ;  paper  windows  and  thatched  roofs,  33.  Few  men  in  the  villages, 
33.  The  village  mill  of  Chili,  33.  Women  millers,  34.  Grinding  corn 
on  crippled  feet,  34.  Village  temples  and  their  idols,  34.  Chili  brick- 
making,  34.  Gray  bricks  baked  by  the  sun,  34.  A  Pekinese  epigram 
of  bricks,  35.     Sinlo  our  first  stopping-place,  35.     The  Sinlo  mandarin, 

xii 


CONTENTS 

PAOHS 

Across  Chili — contmued 30-43 

35.  A  tea-cup  conversation,  35.  "The  Emperor  of  America,"  35. 
The  ubiquity  of  the  Philistine,  36.  Chengting  and  its  kung  kwan,  36. 
Pride  in  a  timeless  clock,  36.  The  fords  of  the  Huto,  36.  Wading  on  a 
river  bottom,  36.  Peculiarities  of  Chinese  fording  methods,  36.  Fond- 
ness of  ponies  to  drink  in  mid-stream,  37.  Sunken  roads  ;  riding  30  feet 
below  the  level  of  the  plain,  37.     Ravines  worn  by  centuries  of  travel, 

37.  Sunken  roads  across  the  face  of  the  land  natural  monuments  of 
the  oldest  continuous  civilisation,  37.     The  philosophy  of  Chili  carts, 

38.  Projecting  axles  that  seem  useless,  38.  But  in  sunken  roads  pre- 
vent broken  wheels,  38.  The  beginning  of  the  hill-country,  38. 
Hwuyluh  and  the  mines  of  North  China,  38.  Procession  of  men  carry- 
ing iron  kettles,  38.  Anthracite  coal  carried  by  donkeys,  39.  Crude 
methods  of  sawing  and  transporting  coal,  39.  Abundance  of  coal  in 
undeveloped  Chinese  mines,  39.  Impassability  of  carts  through  the 
mountains,  39.  The  unbroken  Chinese  pony,  39.  His  love  of  run- 
ning away,  39.  His  one  machine-like  gait ;  his  endurance  and  persist- 
ence, 40.  The  pony"s  cornstalk  food,  40.  Never  curried  or  permitted 
a  vacation,  49.  A  better  road,  40.  Granite  paving-stones,  40. 
Grooved  and  worn  by  absent  wheels,  41.  Ruts  apparently  worn  cen- 
turies ago,  41.  Road  a  survival  of  an  Imperial  highway,  41.  Tsingting 
on  the  Huto,  41.  A  bridge  that  failed  150  years  ago,  41.  Chinese  dis- 
inclination to  repair,  41.  Fatalist  belief  that  Tsingting  must  be  bridge- 
less,  42.  My  visit  to  the  "Clever"  mandarin,  42.  The  necessity  of 
imitating  European  methods,  42.  Guides  with  paper  lanterns,  42. 
The  curiosity  of  the  townspeople,  4a.  Their  amusement  at  a  conversa- 
tion in  English,  43. 


CHAPTER   IV. 
Beyond  the  Wall  of  Shansi 44-55 

The  tablet  on  the  boundary  line,  44.     Debris  of  the  Great  Wall,  44. 
Disappointing  brick  heaps,  44.  Strategic  advantage  of  a  hill-top  defence, 

44,  Brick  heaps  on  the  ridge,  44.  Wall  of  Shansi  at  right  angles  with 
the  main  line,  45.  Eastern  boundary  of  Chinese  Empire,  200  B.C.;  re- 
minder of  Tartar  Inroads  from  Chili,  45.  Entering  Shansi  through  old 
bastion-towers,  45.     Meeting  Chinese  soldiers  in  semi-foreign  uniforms, 

45.  Their  modern  accoutrements,  45.  The  ''Shansi  Police,"  46.  An 
escort  to  Tai  Yuan,  46.  Description  of  the  newly  organized  police,  46. 
Inaugurated  by  the  provincial  government  to  propitiate  foreigners,  46. 
A  wen  shao  not  a  necessary  credential  with  the  police,  47.  English-la- 
belled "Police  stations,"  47.  System  well  organised  ;  rifles  twenty-two 
years  old  ;  Shansi  policeman  a  true  soldier,  47.  Police  methods  of  carry- 
ing the  mysterious  mail-bags,  48.  Friendliness  of  a  policeman ;  his 
knowledge  of  the  mountains  and  their  legends,  48.  Old  and  new  China ; 
differences  between  Shansi  and  Chili,  48.  Stone  archways  over  the  road, 
49.  Indications  of  an  old  period  in  architecture  ;  little  knowledge  of 
curves  ;  square  pedestals,  49.  Tablets  on  tortoises,  49.  Importance  of 
the  tortoise  in  Chinese  mythology,  49.  Tablets  to  good  mandarins  and 
Confucian  teachers,  49.     Shansi  standards  of  virtue  illustrated  by  tab- 

xiii 


CONTENTS 

PAGES 

Beyond  the  Wall  of  Shensi — continued       .        .        .    44-55 

let  inscriptions,  30.  Tablets  supposed  to  be  the  home  of  departed 
spirits,  50.  First  glimpse  of  "praying-trees,"  50.  Dwelling-places 
of  spirits  who  cure  diseases,  50.  Worship  of  trees  ;  testimonials  in  red 
festoons,  50.  Selection  of  one  praying-tree  from  an  entire  grove,  51. 
Terraces  on  the  mountain-sides,  51.  Scarcity  of  human  beings,  51. 
Their  presence  not  necessary  after  spring  planting,  51.  Villages  of 
different  construction  from  those  in  Chili,  52.  Shansi  houses  built  of 
stone  ;  villages  resembling  Indian  pueblos,  52.  Village  walls  and  gate- 
ways ;  pictures  to  frighten  evil  spirits,  52.  Prosperous  towns  of  the 
mountains,  52.  Ping  Ting,  its  temple  and  market,  white  potatoes,  53. 
The  wall  on  the  mountain-top ;  an  obstacle  on  the  highway,  53.  The 
Plain  the  arch  revealed,  53.  A  natural  amphitheatre  ;  the  sky  and  the 
shadows,  54.  The  wall  and  the  arch,  a  curtain,  54.  The  builder  of  the 
archway  ;  his  sense  of  beauty  ;  his  appreciation  of  the  point  of  vantage, 
54,     He  was  a  Chinaman,  55. 


CHAPTER  V. 
The  Blight  on  the  Land 56-66 

Similarity  of  most  of  the  mountain  villages,  56.  Isolated  and  remote 
communities  without  "poverty  alleys,"  56.  Villagers  uniformly  rich 
and  poor,  without  ambition  and  without  discontent,  56.  The  occasional 
blighted  village,  57.  Its  crumbling  walls,  dilapidated  roofs,  and  broken 
windows,  57.  Its  sickly,  unkempt  inhabitants,  57.  Dishevelled  queues 
and  dying  babies,  57.  Opium  the  cause,  57.  Opium  villages  disliked 
by  the  Shansi  poUce,  57.  Reticence  of  the  Shijang,  58.  Opium  victims 
must  die,  58.  Introduction  of  opium  into  a  village,  58.  The  process  of 
experiment,  58.  Entire  community  begin  to  smoke  opium,  58.  It  be- 
comes the  only  interest  of  their  lives,  58.  No  longer  human  beings ; 
a  company  of  the  lost,  58.  Their  money  spent  for  opium  ;  the  death  of 
their  village,  59.  Thousands  of  opium  victims  annually  in  Shansi  vil- 
lages, 59.     Opium  cures  and  asylums,  59.     Missionaries'  opium  refuges, 

59.  Small  number  of  permanent  cures,  60.  Observations  on  a  few 
phases  of  the  opium  question,  60.  The  British  Royal  Opium  Commis- 
sion of  1893  in  response  to  a  world  clamour,  60.    A  seven-volume  report, 

60.  Commission's  finding  that  opium  does  little  harm,  61.  Suitable  lit- 
erature for  the  King  of  Brobdignag,  61.  A  "  reductio  ad  absurdum, ' '  but 
supported  by  a  voluminous  testimony,  61.     Mr.  Duffs  communication, 

61.  Comment  on  the  communication  from  the  standpoint  of  the  Shansi 
village,  62.     Widespread  Chinese  belief  in  the  harmfulness  of  opium, 

62.  China's  darkest  cloud,  63.  The  opinion  of  a  Shansi  Taotai,  63. 
Recommendation  of  a  man  who  does  not  smoke  opium,  63.  As  individ- 
uals Chinese  to  blame  for  persisting  in  the  habit,  63.  Impossible  for 
Chinese  to  resist  subtle  fascination  of  the  drug,  63.  As  a  nation  and  a 
government  China  is  not  to  blame,  64.  China's  efforts  to  put  a  stop  to 
the  traffic,  64.  Former  prohibition  of  the  cultivation  of  the  poppy.  64. 
British  possession  of  Hong  Kong ;  the  treaty  of  Tientsin,  64.  Wen 
Hsiang's  appeal  to  Queen  Victoria,  65.  The  British  curt  rejoinder,  65. 
Present  cultivation  of  opium  by  Chinese,  65.     Resulting  reduction  of 

xiv 


CONTENTS 

PAGES 

The  Blight  on  the  Land — continued    ....     56-66 

revenues  to  the  Indian  Government,  65.  Chinese  cultivation  of  opium 
not  an  argument  that  China  desires  continuance  of  the  traffic,  66. 
Laws  against  opium  never  repealed,  66.  Determination  of  Chinese 
Government  to  retain  for  its  subjects  the  profits  of  the  traffic,  66.  The 
attitude  of  China  toward  the  greatest  of  Christian  nations,  66.  Western 
surprise  at  the  slow  progress  of  gospel  light  in  China,  66. 


CHAPTER   VI. 
To  Tai  Yuan 67-84 

A  mountain  wilderness,  67.  Rain  caves  in  the  hill-sides,  67.  Ravines 
and  precipices,  67.  Cleverness  of  Chinese  mules,  68.  Camel  caravans  ; 
meeting  camels  in  the  mountains,  68.  Mongolian  drivers,  68.  Their 
conversations  in  camel  language,  69.  Long-haul  freight  trains  of  China, 
69.  Camel  resting-places,  69.  The  failure  of  my  stirrup-straps,  69. 
Slipping  over  a  pony's  head,  70.  Wang  and  the  Mafu,  70.  "  So  I  can 
kick,"  71.  Chinese  willingness  to  accept  punishment,  71.  Mountain 
shrines,  71.  Idolsof  the  three  religions,  71.  Few  worshippers,  72.  Tem- 
ples a  protection  against  evil  spirits,  72.  Care  of  the  idols  by  the  land- 
owners, 72.  Picturesque  Imperial  couriei-s,  72.  System  of  pony  relays 
for  carrying  government  despatches,  73.  The  speed  of  the  courier  ;  his 
bare  head  and  his  yellow  sash,  73.  My  welcomersat  Shou  Yang  ;  their 
aged  leader,  73.  The  enthusiasm  of  the  greeting,  73.  Fire-crackers  and 
noise,  74.  My  recollection  of  my  few  virtues,  74.  The  banchaiti's  ex- 
planation, 74.  The  "  missionary  trouble,"  74.  Solicitude  of  Shou  Yang's 
mandarin,  74.  Reason  for  my  demonstrative  welcome,  75.  Still  unap- 
preciated ;  attempting  an  address  of  thanks,  75.  Effect  of  Prince  Ching's 
card,  75.  Not  a  missionary,  75.  The  gray  hills  of  the  plateau,  76. 
Tai  Yuan  on  Sunday  morning,  76.  No  emblems  of  eternal  rest,  77. 
The  capital  of  Shansi,  77.  Its  population,  business,  and  filth,  77.  Siege 
and  capture  of  Tai  Yuan  by  the  Prince  of  Han.  78.  Exile  of  the  city's 
inhabitants,  78.  Tai  Yuan's  hatred  of  foreigners,  78.  Memories  of 
Genghis  Khan  ;  nearness  to  home  of  Prince  Tuan,  78.  His  banishment 
to  Turkestan,  79.  Rumors  of  another  attack  on  foreigners,  79. 
Shansi's  part  in  the  Boxer  uprising,  79.  Yu  Hsien  and  his  awful  mur- 
der of  the  missionaries,  79.  Missionaries  made  prisoners  in  Tai  Yuan, 
79.  Massacred  at  the  governor's  order,  80.  Not  the  result  of  mob 
violence,  but  deliberate  murder,  80.  Yu  Hsien's  suicide  on  order  of 
the  Empress  Dowager,  80.  My  meeting  with  Shen  Tun  Ho,  head  of 
foreign  office,  80.  His  English  predilections,  80.  Disliked  by  the 
conservative  party,  81.  Banishment  to  the  obscurity  of  Mongolia,  81. 
Called  to  present  position  to  propitiate  foreigners,  81.  Institutes  post- 
office  and  Shansi  police,  81.  His  informal  manner,  81.  His  recollec- 
tions of  New  York,  82.  His  attempt  to  inculcate  a  sense  of  honor  in  his 
soldiers,  82.  Awakened  by  a  night  pandemonium,  82.  The  eclipse  of 
the  moon,  83.  Frightening  the  dragon  away,  83.  The  missionary's 
explanation  and  Wang's  comprehension,  83.  At  Su  Kou  ;  the  dragon's 
satiety,  83.    My  hopes  for  the  dragon's  digestion,  84. 

XV 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  VII. 

PAGES 

The  Land  of  Yau  and  Shun 85-96 

John  Chinaman  not  a  distinct  type ;  an  observation  of  the  "Toads  " 
in  their  own  country,  85.  Certain  characteristics  common  to  all 
Chinese,  85.  But  marked  points  of  distinction  between  adjacent  prov- 
inces, 85.  The  Sichuanese ;  Tartar  traits  and  Shansi  people,  86. 
Shansi  taciturnity  and  love  of  home,  86.  Their  worship  of  the  spirits 
of  trees  and  rocks  ;  their  closeness  to  nature,  86.  Peculiarities  of  Shansi 
dress,  86.  The  provincial  dialect,  86.  Entering  Old  China,  87.  A 
succession  of  large  towns,  87.  Noticeable  improvement  in  roads  and 
kung  kwans,  87.  Recently  repaired  highways,  87.  Travelling  in  the 
same  route  as  the  Imperial  Exiles,  88.  Kiehiu  ;  a  strange  city,  88. 
Two-story  houses,  88.  Mediaeval  German  architecture,  88.  Laby- 
rinthine streets  ;  a  city  for  a  minotaur,  88.  Walking  through  winding 
alleys  between  blank  walls,  89.  Houses  with  no  apparent  entrances,  89. 
Method  in  the  plan  of  the  maze,  90.  Kiehiu  a  Chinese  puzzle,  90. 
The  difficulties  of  Linshi  Pass,  90.  Our  slow  progress  through  it,  90. 
Recently  improved  for  the  Empress  Dowager,  90.  Linshis  jolts  for 
Kwang  Su,  91.  Linshi  a  natural  barrier  of  Sian,  91.  Inaccessibility  of 
Sian  by  any  route  from  the  coast,  91.  Ping  Yang,  the  capital  during 
China's  Satumian  age,  91.  The  times  of  Yau  and  Shun,  2356  B.C.,  92. 
When  "  The  Sky  rained  gold,"  92.  Temple  of  the  two  heroes  in  Ping 
Yang,  92.  Rebuilt  by  the  present  Emperor,  93.  Description  of  it ; 
tablets  to  early  kings,  but  no  idols,  93.  Statues  of  Yau  and  Shun,  93. 
Their  unhappy  expressions,  93.  The  early  worship  of  Shang  Ti,  93. 
The  ancient  temple  still  undefiled  by  idols,  94.  Ping  Yang's  evidences 
of  former  greatness,  94.  Its  curious  walls  and  gateway  bastions,  94, 
Impregnable  against  everything  but  dynamite,  94.  The  Sedan  chair 
and  its  heavy  burden.  94.  The  reverence  it  inspired,  95.  The  idol  oc- 
cupant of  the  chair,  95.  The  weariness  of  idols  and  their  occasional 
excursions.  95.  Usual  spark  of  the  Universal  Soul  in  Chinese  supersti- 
tion, 96.  Exceptional  absence  of  it  in  idol  procession,  96.  Reason  for 
Yau  and  Shuns  worried  expression,  96. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
Where  Genghis  Khan  Failed 97-109 

The  valley  of  the  Fen  Hoa,  97.  Pagodas  on  promontories,  97. 
Great  height  of  pagodas ;  monuments  not  temples,  97.  Travelling 
over  the  battle-fields  of  Genghis  Khan,  97.  Genghis'  attempts  to  conquer 
China,  98.  His  death  in  1227,  98.  His  failure  to  subdue  Northern 
China,  98.  Stubborn  valor  of  Shansi  and  Shensi,  98.  Sixty-years 
battle  with  the  Mongols,  99.  Final  triumph  of  Kublai  Khan,  99.  A 
victory  of  the  vanquished,  97.  Absorption  of  the  Mongols  in  Chinese 
civilisation,  99.  Shansi  soldiers  of  to-day,  99.  My  escort  from  Ping 
Yang,  99.  Their  opium-smoking  peculiarities,  99.  Their  curious 
armament,  100.  An  attempt  to  kill  an  eagle,  100.  Searching  for  a 
cartridge,  100.  Loading  a  rifle  under  difficulties,  100.  Meeting  Shansi 
regiment,  100.  Ammunition  not  a  necessity,  loi.  Picturesque  uni- 
forms,   loi.     Straggling  tactics,   loi.    The  young  captain ;  a  much 

xvi 


CONTENTS 

PAGES 

Where  Genghis  Khan  Failed — contmued  .        .        .     97-109 

travelled  man,  loi.  Endurance  and  patience  of  the  Chinese  soldier, 
102.  Cool  and  brave  ;  opium  his  worst  fault,  102.  Recent  innova- 
tions in  army  organisation,  102.  Substitution  of  the  rifle  for  the  broad- 
sword with  Manchu  militia,  103.  Imperial  military  colleges,  103.  Ap- 
pointment of  military  mandarins,  103.  Methods  of  Shansi  night-watch- 
man, 104.  Efforts  to  prevent  the  man  guarded  from  sleeping,  104.  The 
raps  on  the  bamboo  stick,  104,  My  Tai  Yuan  pony,  104.  His  failure 
at  Heo  Mah,  105.  The  visit  of  the  military  mandarin  ;  his  expressions 
of  unbounded  admiration  for  me,  105.  My  acceptance  of  his  offer  of 
his  pony ;  we  exchange  saddles,  106.  How  the  gift  horse  looked  in 
the  morning,  107.  The  "  bad  news  "  at  Wenhi,  107.  Selling  a  dying 
gift,  107.  Wang's  prophecy  of  a  bright  future  for  the  military  man- 
darin, 108.  Across  a  parched  plain,  108.  Praying  for  rain,  109.  Down 
a  sunken  road  to  the  Yellow  River,  109.  Battlemcnted  Tung  Kwan, 
106.     "  That  is  Shensi,"  109. 

CHAPTER  IX. 
Tung  Kwan  AND  THE  Original  River  ....  110-121 

Tung  Kwan  that  Genghis  Khan  never  captured,  no.  San-kau-pa- 
tu's  failure,  no.  The  Gibraltar  of  China,  no.  Ferried  across  the 
Yellow  River,  in.  A  crowded  craft ;  quarters  between  the  pony's  legs, 
in.  The  Wei  Wen  of  the  Governor,  112.  The  Wei  Wen's  regard  for 
my  credentials,  112.  His  demonstrative  welcome  to  Shensi,  112.  Carts 
with  four  wheels,  112.  Mistake  of  generalising  in  descriptions  of  any- 
thing Chinese,  113.  Universality  of  two-wheeled  cart  disproved  by 
Tung  Kwan  exception,  113.  The  willow-lined  road  by  the  Wei  Ho,  113. 
A  reminiscence  of  theiMohammedan  rebellion,  113.  Scarce  knowledge 
in  the  West  of  uprising  of  Islam  in  the  valleys  of  the  Yellow  River, 
114.  Wholesale  devastation  wrought  by  the  rebellion,  114.  An  after- 
math of  the  Taipings,  114.  Curious  conversions  to  Christianity; 
"Allah  or  the  idols?"  114.  Final  subjugation  of  the  rebels  by  Tso 
Rung  Pao,  115.  His  lack  of  money  and  commissariat,  115.  A  strike 
for  back  pay  cured  by  arbour  culture,  115.  Hua  Shan  and  the  temple  of 
Hua  ih,  115.  The  five  sacred  mountains,  115.  Early  monotheism  of 
the  Chinese,  116.  Sacrifices  by  the  Kings  to  Shang  Ti  on  the  sacred 
mountains,  116.  Survival  of  "mountain  worship,"  116.  Visited 
annually  by  thousands  of  pilgrims,  117.  Co-operative  pilgrimages, 
117.  Reticence  of  Chinese  on  the  subject  of  ''  mountain  worship,"  117. 
Intermediaries  between  the  plain  and  the  Eternal,  118.  Upward  soul- 
groping  of  the  Chinaman,  118.  Series  of  temples  at  Hua  ih,  118.  A 
commingling  of  faiths,  118.  A  stone  menagerie.  118.  Worshipping 
images  of  monkeys  and  tigers.  118.  Contrasted  with  the  imageless 
temple  of  Confucius,  119.     An  illustration  of  Chinese  building  methods, 

119.  Ancient  knowledge  of  the  principles  of  American  "Skyscraper" 
construction,  119.  The  fonging  pond,  119.  Virtue  in  liberating  ani- 
mals, 119.  Pious  fonging  of  fish,  120.  Sale  of  tablet  rubbings  to  pil- 
grims, 120.     A  preventative  of  evil  spirits,  120.     A  Shensi  rain-storm, 

120.  Drenched  soldiers,  120.  A  night  at  Fu  Shin,  120.  An  Awful 
inn,  120.     A  leaking  window-pane,  121.     The  cost  of  a  paper  window, 

121.  Labour  cheaper  than  paper,  121. 

xvii 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  X. 

PAGES 

Shensi— THE  Old  Race 122-140 

Hazy  origin  of  the  Chinese  race,  121.  First  heard  from  in  Shensi 
valleys,  122.  Fuhi  and  the  "eight  permutations,"  122.  Fuhi's  birth 
before  the  death  of  Noah,  122.  Shensi  the  home  of  descendants  of 
Fuhi's  subjects,  123.  The  Shensi  type,  123.  Yellow  skins  with  a  ten- 
dency to  redness,  113.  Resemblance  to  North  American  Indians,  123. 
Shensi  love  of  learning  and  sense  of  justice,  123.  An  old  race  to  whom 
Mongol  conquerors  are  moderns,  123.  Sons  of  Han,  123.  Their  dispo- 
sition to  patronise  ' '  new  "  Chinese,  124.  Their  opinion  of  the  Pekinese 
smart  set,  124.  The  dialect  of  Shensi,  124.  Free  from  Tartar  vulgar- 
isms, 124.  The  substitution  of  tA  for  J,  124,  Prejudice  without  fanati- 
cism characteristic  of  Shensi,  125.  Foreigners  regarded  as  inferiors,  but 
harmless,  125.  Modern  barbarians  will  ultimately  be  absorbed  by  Chi- 
nese civilisation,  125.  This  view  the  cause  which  prevented  murder  of 
missionaries,  125.  Tuan  Fang,  the  former  Governor,  125.  Ordered  to 
kill  the  foreigners,  125.  The  advice  of  the  conservative  race  over 
whom  he  ruled,  126.  The  Governor's  moral  courage,  126.  Rescue  of 
the  missionaries,  126.  Providing  them  with  travelling  expenses  and  an 
escort,  126.  His  act  made  possible  by  the  moral  support  of  his  peo- 
ple, 126.  Shensi  villages,  126.  The  "  Head  man,"  126.  His  appoint- 
ment due  to  his  popularity  with  his  neighbours,  127.  Liberty  of  speech 
and  action  in  Shensi,  127.  Few  policemen,  127.  Discussions  in 
Shensi  villages,  127.  Tea-house  gossip,  127.  No  fear  of  Government 
interference,  128.  Wide-spread  interest  in  politics,  128.  News  fur- 
nished by  the  Imperial  Edicts,  128.  Learning  of  the  death  of  Li  Hung 
Chang,  128.  Absence  from  the  villages  of  the  condition  called  "  pov- 
erty," 128.  Equality  of  conditions  and  few  "  unemployed,"  129.  Small 
farms  held  by  one  family  for  generations,  129.  The  work  of  the  village 
women,  129.  Disadvantages  of  the  Shensi  land  system,  129.  Its  limi- 
tation of  competition  and  ambition  at  the  same  time,  130.  Makes 
provision  only  for  agriculture,  130.  A  bar  to  other  forms  of  industry, 
130.  Absence  of  the  bathing  habit  in  Shensi,  130.  The  washing 
of  clothes  and  invalids,  131.  Soap  an  unknown  quantity,  131.  Dis- 
like of  the  external  uses  of  water,  131.  Temperate  habits  of  the  vil- 
lagers, 131.  Drunkenness  almost  unknown,  131.  Difficulty  of  obtain- 
ing pure  water,  132.  Drinking  boiled  water,  132.  The  place  of 
habitual  drunkards  supplied  by  opium  victims,  132.  The  children  of 
Shensi,  132.  Their  love  for  their  parents  the  most  beautiful  trait  in  the 
national  character,  132.  Children  the  joy  of  the  villages,  132.  Chil- 
dren as  companions  and  parents  as  friends,  133.  Laws  of  filial  piety 
founded  on  natural  affection,  133.  Bright  and  healthy  appearance  of 
the  Shensi  children,  133.  No  prejudice  against  foreigners,  133.  Natu- 
ral and  never  "  spoiled,"  134.  Children's  padlocks,  134.  Means  to 
prevent  child  soul-stealing,  134.  Calling  children  toads  and  pigs,  134. 
The  foundation  of  the  queue,  134.  Universal  prevalence  of  foot-bind- 
ing in  Shensi,  135.  "  Disgraceful  "  for  a  woman's  feet  to  remain 
unbound,  135.  Unjust  to  charge  Chinese  mothers  with  cruelty,  135. 
Shensi  schools,  135.  The  profession  of  teaching,  135.  No  illiteracy  ; 
knowledge  of  the  analects  by  ten-year-old  boys,  135.     Little  education 


CONTENTS 

PACKS 

Shensi — THE  Old  Race — continued         ....   122-140 

for  girls,  136.  The  village  theatre,  136.  The  annual  play  the  great 
event  in  the  life  of  the  village,  136.  No  scenery  or  reserved  seats,  136. 
A  noisy,  all-day  performance,  136.  Harsh  falsetto  of  the  actors,  136. 
Expressions  of  approval  by  the  audience,  137.  Social  side  of  the 
theatre,  137.  Shensi  flirtation  and  love-making,  137.  Joyousness  of 
Shensi  funerals,  137.  Providing  the  dead  man  with  money  for  the 
spirit  world,  137.  Paper  horses  for  spirit  riders,  137.  Funeral  proces- 
sions led  by  priests,  138.  Loud  lamentations  of  the  widow  and  children, 
but  absence  of  tears,  138.  My  experience  of  a  funeral  procession  near 
Hua,  138.  White  garments  of  mourning  ;  their  weirdness,  138.  Ex- 
iled criminals  in  Shensi  villages,  139.  Chinese  system  of  banish- 
ments, 139.  Shensi  a  favourite  place  of  exile,  139.  Criminals  paroled 
and  given  partial  liberty,  140.  Banishment  the  punishment  for  minor 
crimes,  140.  More  serious  offences  punished  by  death,  140.  The  man- 
acled young  murderer,  140.     His  indifference  to  his  fate,  140. 


CHAPTER   XI. 
Mandarins  and  Their  Methods 141-151 

Importance  of  mandarins  in  the  life  of  Shensi,  141.  Progression  of 
personal  responsibility  in  Chinese  Government,  141.  Vesting  of  all 
governmental  functions  in  an  individual,  141.  His  supremacy  within 
his  own  sphere,  142.  The  ladder  of  responsibility  ;  mandarins  its 
rounds,  142.  Emperor's  absolute  power  seldom  applied  directly,  142. 
Mandarin  responsibility  concerned  only  with  results,  142.  Methods  of 
accomplishing  his  duties  each  mandarin's  own  affair,  143.  His  power  of 
life  and  death,  143.  Governor  of  a  province  practically  its  king,  143. 
His  liability  to  punishment  or  an  imperial  suicide  order,  143.  His  ab- 
solute power  while  in  office,  143.  A  Governor's  duty  to  defend  his 
province  from  invasion,  143.  Not  the  concern  of  the  rest  of  the  coun- 
try, 144.  Mandarin's  responsibility  to  punish  criminals,  144.  A  decree 
obtained  at  a  public  examination  requisite  for  a  mandarin,  144. 
Abundance  of  applicants  for  a  mandarin  vacancy,  144.  Possibility  of 
advancement  for  capable  mandarins,  144.  Desire  of  mandarins  for  the 
maintenance  of  "  Peace,"  145.  The  Shensi  idea  of  "  peace,"  incom- 
patible with  progress,  145.  Troubles  of  a  mandarin  who  attempts  to 
improve  conditions,  145.  His  wisest  course  the  maintenance  of  every- 
thing as  he  found  it,  145.  "  Squeezing,"  its  definition  and  causes,  146. 
The  incentive  to  office-holding,  146.  Wealth  of  mandarins,  146.  Their 
inadequate  salary  from  the  Government,  146.  Mandarin's  facilities  for 
stealing,  146.  Tacit  consent  of  Government  and  submission  of  the 
people,  147.  "Squeeze  "a  mandarin  essential,  147.  Good  points  in 
mandarin  system,  147.  Mandarin  only  government  representative  in 
his  district,  148.  Subordinate  officials  merely  his  servants,  148.  The 
"  Chief  servant  "  and  his  duties,  148.  His  knowledge  of  Confucius  and 
his  care  of  the  mandarin's  correspondence,  148.  Difficulties  of  man- 
darin letter-writing,  149.  An  unusual  vernacular,  149.  Eliminating 
originality  from  letters,  149.  A  mandarin's  prescribed  costume ;  his 
silk  robe  and  button  of  rank,  150.     His  hidden  hands  and  thick-soled 

xix 


CONTENTS 

PAGES 

Mandarins  and  Their  Methods — continued       .       .   141-151 

boots,  150.  Beads  at  an  audience  with  his  superiors,  150.  The  man- 
darins I  met,  150.  Their  refined  manners,  151.  Quiet  and  dignified, 
151.  Anglo-Saxon  savoir  faire,  151.  Sense  of  honour  among  man- 
darins, 151. 

CHAPTER  XII. 

SlAN  AND  THE  SlANESE     ....,•.      152-182 

Chinese  without  "  sense  of  beauty,"  152.  The  sulphur  Baths  of 
Lintoun,  152.  The  pavilions  in  the  Yellow  Lake,  152.  Their  variegated 
roofs,  152.  The  shrine  on  the  hill-top,  153.  My  first  impressions  of  the 
Baths  of  Lintoun,  153.  The  play  of  sunlight  and  colour,  153.  Lin- 
toun not  conspicuous,  153.  In  a  "  Heathen  "  land,  153.  Love  of  the 
Old  Race  for  the  hillside,  154,  Their  idea  of  beauty,  154.  Discovery 
of  a  robbery,  154.  Arrest  of  the  culprit,  154.  An  audience  with  the 
mandarin,  155.  The  "bamboo"  inquisition,  155.  A  confession  of 
guilt ;  the  sentence  155.  My  loss  reimbursed  by  the  mandarin,  156. 
The  peculiar  "  Heathen  "  Chinese,  156.  On  the  Alkali  Plain  of  Sian, 
156.  Old  stone  bridges,  156.  A  monotonous  ocean  of  plain,  157. 
Seeming  range  of  hills,  157.  Miniature  mountain-peaks,  157.  "That 
is  Sian,"  157.  Supposed  hills,  the  city  walls,  158.  Great  height  and 
excellent  condition  of  the  walls  of  Sian,  158.  Their  commanding  arch- 
ery towers,  158.  Sianese  pride  in  the  walls,  158.  Suburbs  of  Sian, 
159.  The  Cosmopolitan  human  islands,  159.  Points  of  similarity  be- 
tween Sian  and  New  York  suburbs,  159.  Entering  the  city,  159.  On 
the  way  to  the  residence  of  Mr.  Duncan,  160.  Riding  through  a  me- 
tropolis, 160.  My  attempt  at  Chinese  clothes  and  methods  ;  discovery 
of  my  disguise  by  the  Sianese,  160.  Followed  by  a  pointing  crowd,  160. 
The  "Funny  foreign  man,"  161.  The  American  kung  kwan,  161. 
Meeting  the  missionary  of  Sian,  161.  The  beginning  of  our  acquaint- 
ance, 161.  A  member  of  the  brotherhood  of  mankind,  161.  Name  of 
the  founder  of  Sian  unknown,  162.  Birthplace  of  Fuhi,  162.  Hwang-ti 
and  his  queen  Lui-tsu,  162.  The  great  Yu  ;  his  mastery  of  the  Yellow 
River,  162.  Wu  Wang  first  of  the  Chows,  163.  The  days  of  Sian's 
glory,  163.  Chung,  the  Wall  builder,  163.  The  Han  dynasty  and  the 
age  of  literature,  163.  Ping  ti,  the  "  Emperor  of  Peace,"  164.  Sack  of 
Sian  by  Kwang  Wu  Ti,  164.  Yang  Kien  and  Tai  Tsung,  "  the  glori- 
ous," 164.  The  university  of  Sian,  164.  Sian  made  provincial  capi- 
tal by  Kublai  Khan,  165.  The  rebellion  of  Li  Tsi  Chung,  165.  His 
temporary  triumph,  165.  His  retreat  from  Pekin,  165.  His  last  stand 
at  Sian,  165.  Sian  last  to  acknowledge  Manchu  supremacy,  166.  The 
eternity  of  Sian  its  peculiar  charm,  166.  Sianese  reckless  references  to 
time,  166.  Realizing  a  comment  of  De  Quincey  on  China,  166.  Shen- 
nung  and  his  glass  stomach,  166.  The  "  Shen-nung  treatment,"  167. 
The  parade-ground  and  Chung's  palace,  167.  Estimate  of  Sian's  popu- 
lation, 167.  Order  in  system  of  streets,  167.  A  contrast  with  most 
Chinese  cities,  168.  Sian  more  imposing  than  Pekin,  168.  The  public 
square,  168.  Its  jugglers  and  amusement  makers,  168.  Chinese 
Punch  and  Judy,  168.  The  "  Story-teller,"  169.  His  clever  imitation 
of  an  old  mandarin,  169.  The  Mohammedan  quarter  of  Sian,  169. 
Religion  only  point  of  difference  between  Mohammedans  and  other 


CONTENTS 

PAGES 

SlAN  AND  THE  SlANESE — continued  ....    152-182 

Sianese,  169.  Tolerance  of  Islam  in  Sian,  170.  Former  hostilities 
of  Mohammedans  to  reigning  dynasty,  170.  Marco  Polo's  mention  of 
Sian  "  Saracens,''  170.  The  Broadway  of  Sian,  170.  Its  shops  and 
business,  170.  Substantial  character  of  merchandise  sold,  170.  Near- 
ness of  Sian  to  Kansuh  and  Tibet,  170.  Centre  of  the  fur  trade,  171. 
Low  price  of  furs,  171.  "  The  shop  of  the  metropolis,"  171.  Shensi 
and  Sian  famous  for  banks,  171.  Age  of  'Sian  banks,  171.  Similarity 
of  system  to  that  of  the  United  States,  171.  Correspondence  in  other 
cities  ;  sight-drafts  and  bills  of  exchange,  171.  Intereit  on  commercial 
accounts  ;  promissory  notes,  172.  Strange  banking  methods,  172.  In- 
tricate calculations  on  a  computing-board,  172.  Simple  bookkeeping, 
172.  One  book  for  the  entire  business  of  the  bank,  173.  Absence  of 
post-offices  in  Shensi,  173.  Sir  Robert  Hart's  postal  system,  173. 
Sianese  opposition  to  a  regular  mail  service,  174.  Letters  a  means  of 
communication  with  the  outer  world  and  consequently  unpopular,  174, 
The  Imperial  Telegraph,  174.  Dislike  of  the  "  wire  on  the  poles,"  174. 
Sian's  telegraph  office,  174.  Its  daily  ase  by  the  Empress  Dowager, 
X75.  The  operator  who  spoke  English,  175.  Residences  of  Sian's  Four 
Hundred,  175.  The  house  of  a  rich  man,  its  costly  furniture,  silk 
draperies,  and  valuable  porcelains,  175.  Native  appreciation  of  peach- 
blows  and  Kiang  Hi  blues,  175.  Primitive  hot-air  furnaces,  176.  The 
heating  pit,  176.  Flues  under  the  floor,  176.  Anthracite  coal  from 
Shansi,  176.  Sian  clubs,  176.  Exclusiveness  of  their  membership,  176. 
*'  Clubs  of  the  Provinces,"  176.  A  convenience  to  visitors  from  other 
parts  of  the  Empire,  177.  Sian  "  society,"  177.  Absence  of  women 
from  public  gatherings,  177.  Old  families ;  Chinese  pride  in  their 
lineage,  177.  Sianese  indifference  to  frivolous  amusements,  178. 
Disparaging  references  to  the  theatre,  178.     Evening  dinner  parties, 

178.  Unfavourable  conditions  under  which  I  saw  Sian,  178.  The  after- 
math of  famine,  179.     Hunger  victims  in  caves,  179.     Absence  of  slums, 

179.  No  "  poor  quarter,"  179.  No  submerged  tenth,  179.  Inequality 
of  wealth,  but  no  "  very  poor,"  179.  Apparently  narrower  gulf  between 
rich  and  poor  in  Sian  than  in  New  York,  180.  Chinese  fondness  for 
gambling,  but  no  gambling  houses  in  Sian,  180.  Enforcement  of  laws 
against  gambling,  180.  No  saloons,  180.  No  "dives"  or  rendezvous 
of  vice,  181.  A  Mohammedan  commentary  on  Western  civilisation, 
181.  No  "  necessary  evils  "  in  old  Sian,  i8x.  Chinese  "  uncivilised  " 
and  "  Yellow  Peril,"  182. 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
Sian  and  the  Sianese,  continued        ....    183-198 

Sian's  importance  in  Chinese  History  little  realised  in  the  West,  183. 
Seldom  visited  by  white  men,  183.  Shensi  dislike  of  foreigners,  183. 
Marco  Polo's  description  of  Kenzan,  183.  My  scepticism  of  Marco's 
statements,  184.  Where  was  Ka-chau-fu  ?  184.  No  silk  produced  in 
Sian,  184.  References  to  Sian  by  Abbe  Hue  and  Professor  Legge,  185. 
The  Roman  Catholic  Mission  in  Sian,  185.  Destruction  of  first  Prot- 
estant Chapel,  185.  Arrival  of  Mr.  Duncan,  185.  Compelled  to 
preach  outside  the  city,  185.     His  popularity  with  native  officials,  186. 

xxi 


CONTENTS 

PAGES 
SlAN   AND   THE  SlANESE,   CONTINUED        ....    183-I98 

His  public  debates  and  his  book-store,  186.  Anti-foreign  orders  of 
1898,  186.  Mr.  Duncan's  friendship  with  the  Governor,  186.  His  ex- 
pulsion and  return,  186.  His  prominence  in  provincial  affairs,  187. 
Sian  as  city  of  Imperial  exile,  centre  of  anti-foreign  sentiment,  187.  My 
excursions  through  the  city,  187.  Politeness  and  consideration  I  re- 
ceived, 187.  Conversations  about  the  mysterious  West,  187.  Courtesy 
of  citizens,  188.  Its  cause — my  friendship  with  the  "missionary  of 
Sian,"  188.  His  extraordinary  position,  188.  "  A  man's  a  man  for  a' 
that,"  188.  Shensi's  Governor  Li  Shao  Fen,  188.  More  feared  in 
his  province  than  the  Emperor,  189.  Ease  with  which  I  obtained  an 
audience,  189.  My  reception  at  the  Governor's  residence,  189.  Alone 
before  the  closed  doors,  190.  A  theatrical  scene,  igo.  Entering  the 
Governor's  hall,  190.  The  two  rows  of  guards  ;  their  salute,  190.  His 
Excellency  on  the  divan,  190.  A  ruler  of  the  Sons  of  Han,  191.  His 
Anglo-Saxon  manner,  191.  A  talk  with  the  Governor,  191.  "The  dif- 
ference between  Americans  and  Englishmen,  191.  Discussing  the 
famine,  192.  My  opinion  as  to  its  cause,  192.  The  Governor's  ob- 
jection to  railroads,  193.  Sudden  attack  of  cleanliness  in  our  kung 
kwan,  193.  "  The  Governor  is  big  business,'"  194.  Preparing  for  an 
official  visit,  194.  His  Excellency's  arrival,  194.  The  ways  of  the  Black 
Haired  People,  194.  Side  comment  on  Christianity,  195.  Incidental 
remarks  on  the  missionaries,  195.  The  Governor's  interest  in  my 
journey,  195.  Looking  for  the  United  States,  195.  Error  of  Barbarian 
maps,  195.  "  The  world  is  flat,"  195.  The  Governor  not  a  Philistine, 
196.  His  consideration  for  Barbarian  ignorance,  196.  A  Sian  dinner- 
party, 196.  An  old  restaurant,  197.  Good  manners  of  our  hosts,  197. 
Comment  on  Manchu  swells,  197.  Sian  opinion  of  the  Chinese  Exclu- 
sion Act,  198.  A  contempt  for  emigrants,  198.  Thinness  of  the  dis- 
guise that  hides  "  one  touch  of  nature,"  198. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 
When  Kwang  Su  was  an  Exile 199-227 

Prominence  of  women  in  Chinese  history,  199.  Mei  Hi  i8i8  B.C. ,  199. 
Chang  Sun  and  her  dying  request,  199.  Wu  How,  "The  Great  and 
Sacred  Empress,  equal  of  Heaven,"  200.  The  present  Empress  Dow- 
ager first  woman  who  ruled  China  since  Wu  How,  200.  Constant 
repetitions  in  Chinese  history,  200.  Similarity  in  the  careers  and 
characters  of  Wu  How  and  Tsz'  Hi,  200.  Necessary  for  both  to  rule 
more  forcefully  than  men,  201.  Limited  education  of  both  Em- 
presses, 201.  Both  beloved  by  their  subjects,  201.  Attitude  of  Bar- 
barians the  same  now  as  in  Wu  How's  time,  201.  Incorrect  to  call  the 
departure  of  the  Imperial  party  from  Pekin  a  flight,  202.  The  start  in 
August,  1900,  202.  The  journey  to  Sian  determined  upon,  202.  Sys- 
tem of  public  deception  as  to  causes  and  intent  of  exiles,  202.  Prac- 
tice of  Emperors  to  travel  through  their  dominions,  203.  Kwang  Su's 
departure  from  a  profaned  capital  an  act  of  virtue,  203.  Wide-spread 
belief  in  the  invincibility  of  China,  203.  Mandarin's  preparations  to 
receive  the  Empress  Dowager,  204.    Activity  on  Shensi  high  roads, 

xxii 


CONTENTS 

PAGES 

When  Kwang  Su  was  an  Exile— coniz'nued        .        .   199-227 

204.  Repairing  kung  kwans  and  temples,  204.  Rapid  journeys  bad 
form,  204.  Slow  progress  of  the  Imperial  exiles,  205.  My  experience 
in  travelling  over  the  same  route,  205.  Reminiscences  of  the  Empress 
Mother,  205.  "  A  thousand  years  "  over  kung  kwan  doorways,  206. 
Beds  where  the  Emperor  had  slept,  206.  Comments  of  banchaitis,  206. 
Dominating  influence  of  the  Empress  Dowager,  206.  Her  recognition 
of  the  Boxer  failure,  206.  Her  dislike  of  anti-foreign  fanaticism,  206. 
The  Boxer  of  Kiehiu,  206.  The  sudden  severance  of  his  head  and 
oration,  207.  Degradation  of  the  mandarin  of  Kiehiu,  207.  The  Man- 
chu  nobleman  who  "  Squeezed,"  207.  His  punishment,  207.  The 
decapitation  conclusion  of  anecdotes  of  the  Empress  Dowager,  207. 
Her  resemblance  to  the  queen  of  ''Wonderland,"  207.  Wholesale 
decapitation  did  not  lessen  Empress  Dowager's  popularity,  208.  Mis- 
take to  believe  Empress  Dowager  is  disliked  by  her  subjects,  208. 
No  sovereign  worship  in  China,  208.  Loyalty  to  Tzi'  Hi  due  to  admi- 
ration for  her  character  and  ability,  208.  Belief  in  her  desire  to  main- 
tain "  Peace,"  208.  Former  viceroy's  residence  in  Sian,  209.  Later 
belief  that  building  was  haunted,  209.  Its  selection  as  the  Palace  of 
the  Exile,  209.  Remodelled  in  imitation  of  forbidden  city  in  Pekin,  210. 
Sacredness  of  a  residence  of  the  Emperor,  210.  Difficulty  of  obtaining 
admission  to  Sian  palace,  21a  Unsafe  for  a  white  man  to  enter,  210. 
My  walk  that  ended  at  the  Palace  gate,  210.  The  lions  at  the  gate 
and  their  cheerfulness,  211.  My  sudden  determination  to  enter,  211. 
Wang's  conquest  of  the   sentry,  212.     The   mandarin   of  the   Palace, 

212.  His  youthful  appearance,  212.  His  refusal  to  admit  me,  212, 
"Also  a  foreigner,"  213.     A  conversation  with  the  Palace  mandarin, 

213.  Thoughts  of  the  Homeland,  213.  The  zither  and  the  mandarin's 
love  of  music,  213.  Motive  in  music,  214.  The  mandarin's  interpreta- 
tion of  the  zither,  214.  A  respect  for  the  Empire,  215.  Realising  the 
solemnity  of  the  Palace,  215.  The  delicacy  of  the  climax  ;  "  I  am  a 
barbarian,"  215.  First  man  to  enter  the  Palace  of  the  Exile,  215.  My 
friendship  with  the  young  mandarm,  216.  His  stories  of  the  Palace  and 
the  Imperial  Exile,  216.  Description  of  the  main  building,  216.  The 
throne-room  ;  its  yellow  wall-paper  and  rag  carpet,  216.  The  canopy 
over  Kwang  Su's  settee,  216.  Reception  of  minor  officials  in  the  left 
wing  of  Palace,  217.  Place  of  honour  for  Emperor  Dowager,  217. 
Fondness  of  Emperor  for  clocks  that  did  not  keep  time,  217.  Empress 
Dowager's  left-hand  room  in  the  living  apartments,  217.  Her  threat  to 
cut  off  heads  of  Palace  Architects,  217.  Kwang  Su's  retirement  to 
right  wing  of  Palace,  218.    The  Sianese  cooks  of  the  Imperial  menage, 

218.  Their  sad  death,  218.  The  Palace  of  Ta-a-ko,  218.  His 
gold-fish  pond  and  lounging  room,  218.  Ta-a-ko  Crown  Prince  of 
China,  Prince  Tuan's  son,  219.     "Bonnie  Prince  Charlie"  of  China, 

219.  His  attempts  to  enliven  life  in  Sian,  219.  His  fondness  for 
gaiety  and  nocturnal  adventures,  219.  Incurred  dislike  of  Empress 
Dowager,  219.  Her  edict  dismissing  him  from  office,  220.  Tuan 
Fang's  promotion,  220.  Arrest  of  the  young  Manchus,  220.  Their 
arraignment  before  Governor  Sheng,  220.  Their  disregard  of  the  laws 
of  Shensi,  222.  Sheng  sustained  by  the  Empress  Dowager,  221. 
Early  morning  audiences,  221.  Wang  Wen  Shau,  a  kindly,  amiable 
old  man,  221.     Boxer  leaders  in  the  Palace  courtyards,  222.     Their 

xxiii 


CONTENTS 

PAGES 

When  Kwang  Su  was  an  Exile — continued        .        .   199-227 

anti-foreign  advice  to  the  Empress  Dowager,  222.  Rung  Lu's  lecture 
on  the  pretentions  of  foreigners,  222.  The  small  island  where  all 
foreigners  originate,  222.  Imperial  Edicts,  a  substitute  for  news- 
papers, 223.  Their  mortuary  character  ;  publication  of  the  edicts  in 
magazine  form,  223.  Edicts  that  lingered  in  the  Palace,  223.  Depart- 
ure of  the  Emperor  through  west  gate  of  Sian,  224.  The  homeward 
journey  through  Honan,  224.  China  again  supreme  among  the  nations, 
224.  Sianese  allowed  to  gaze  on  their  Sovereigns,  224.  Size  and 
order  of  the  Imperial  procession,  225.  Sheng's  superintendence  of 
the  baggage  train,  225.  Plot  of  Sheng's  Manchu  enemies,  225. 
Wrath  of  the  Empress  Dowager,  225.  Sheng's  explanation,  225. 
Her  rage  at  Ta-a-ko  and  his  friends,  226.  Kwang  Su's  obeisance  to 
the  Empress  Dowager,  226.  Active  mind  of  the  "Jezebel  of  China," 
226.  Turbulent  and  distressed  condition  of  Shensi  at  the  time  of 
Emperor  Dowager's  arrival,  227.  "Peace"  when  she  departed,  227. 
Why  the  Chinese  wish  for  her  "  a  thousand  years,"  227. 

CHAPTER   XV. 
Shensi's  Famine 228-240 

Thirty  per  cent,  of  population  of  Province  died  of  famine,  228.  Little 
interest  in  the  awful  death  harvest  in  the  Western  world,  228.  Americans 
only  contributors  to  famine  relief  fund,  228.  Drought  cause  of  famine, 
228.  Isolation  of  Shensi  and  difficulty  of  obtaining  food-supplies,  229. 
Loess  soil  of  Shensi,  229.  A  desert  without  rain,  229.  The  famine  of 
Yang-Kien's  reign,  229.  Three  years  without  water,  230.  Disappear- 
ance of  rivers,  230.  Rise  in  the  prices  of  bread,  230.  Flocking  of  the 
villagers  in  Sian,  230.  Caves  for  hunger  sufferers,  230.  Eating  grass 
and  weeds,  230.  Collecting  the  bodies  of  the  dead,  231.  Famine 
cannibalism,  231.  The  Governor's  relief  committee,  231.  Opening  of 
soup  kitchens,  231.  Liberal  relief  contributions  from  Chinese  sources, 
232.  Sale  of  Government  degrees,  232.  Eating  cats  and  dogs,  232. 
The  sale  of  children,  232.  Market  for  the  sale  of  little  girls,  232. 
Desire  of  every  father  for  sons  to  succeed  him,  233.  Consequent  mar- 
ket for  boys,  233.  Sale  of  boys  and  girls  in  the  vicinity  of  Sian,  234. 
Speculating  in  children,  234.  Dread  of  the  arrival  of  the  Court,  234. 
Government  caravans  instituted  by  Empress  Dowager,  234.  Her 
study  of  famine  conditions,  234.  "  Squeezing  "  of  famine  funds,  235. 
The  riddle  of  the  silver  and  the  copper,  235.  Cutting  off  the  heads  of 
dishonest  mandarins,  235.  The  abatement  of  the  famine,  235.  Arrival 
of  American  relief  fund,  236.  The  "American  kung  kwan,"  236.  Na- 
tive famine  lists  basis  of  American  distribution,  236.  Co-operation  of 
mandarins  in  American  relief  work,  236.  Management  of  relief  dis- 
tributions by  native  officials,  237.  Difficulties  of  transportation  of 
money,  238.  Weight  of  cash  strings,  238.  Fifty-two  carts  for  $800, 
238.  Forwarding  of  money  through  Chinese  banks,  238.  The  Gov- 
ernor's stop  to  exorbitant  rates  of  exchange,  238.  A  relief  distribu- 
tion in  an  old  Sian  temple,  239.  Feeding  3,000  persons,  239.  Grati- 
tude of  the  starving,  240.  Prohibiting  kow  tows,  240.  No  distinction 
of  race  or  creed  in  distribution  of  American  money,  240. 

xxiv 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

PA0B3 

Around  About  Sian 242-250 

Excursions  across  Sian  plain,  242.  A  treeless  desert,  242.  Absence 
of  travellers  and  farmers,  242.  Roofless  houses,  242.  A  plain  of  the 
dead,  242.  The  strange  mounds  of  the  plain,  243.  Their  pyramidal 
shape,  243.  Apparent  intention  in  their  construction  to  have  their  sides 
four  square  with  the  points  of  the  compass,  243.  Veneration  of  the 
pyramids  by  villagers  of  the  surrounding  country,  244.  Regarded  as  a 
mystery,  244.  Explained  as  burial-places  of  early  kings  of  China, 
244.  Pyramids  without  inscription,  245.  Pyramid  rare  in  Chinese 
architecture,  245.  Possible  that  mounds  were  altars  of  a  primitive 
religion,  245.  Former  worship  of  Shang  Ti  the  Supreme  God,  245. 
Natural  that,  as  oldest  province,  Shensi  should  contain  evidences  of 
former  religions,  246.  A  conjecture  in  a  description  of  an  unsolved 
riddle,  246.  Many  riddles  worth  solving  in  China,  246.  The  fords  of 
the  Wei  Ho,  246.  Former  irrigation  trenches,  247.  Cotton  grown  in  a 
cold  climate ;  a  surviving  village  of  cotton  spinners.  247.  The  head 
man,  who  made  nineteen  cents  a  day,  247.  Bobbins  from  America,  247. 
The  spinner's  explanation  of  the  cheapness  of  his  thread,  248.  San 
Yuan  and  its  suffering  from  famine,  248.  The  Cemetery  in  the  em- 
bankment, 248.  Chinese  ability  to  forget  suffering,  249.  Indifference 
of  inhabitants  of  San  Yuan  to  famine,  249.  Centre  of  cotton  trade,  249, 
Enormous  demand  for  cotton  cloth  in  China,  249.  Importing  cotton 
from  the  United  States,  249.  The  camel  caravans  outside  the  city  wall, 
249.  Labels  in  English  language,  250.  The  product  of  Fall  River, 
250. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 
Some  Shensi  Monuments 251-265 

Stone  tablets  of  China,  251.  Miscellaneous  character  of  their  in- 
scriptions, 251.  Records  of  great  events  and  illustrious  personages, 
251.  Soul  of  the  Chinese  voiced  in  gray  stone,  251.  Repositories  of 
best  thoughts,  252.  Charm  of  Shensi  tablets,  252.  An  expression  of 
hidden  soul  fires,  252.  The  dream  of  Hung  Wu,  252.  His  visit  to  the 
Western  Mountains,  253.  Hung  Wu's  strenuous  life,  253.  Guided  by 
a  white  rabbit,  253.  The  Emperor's  account  of  his  dream-pilgrimage, 
253.  The  character  for  Happiness,  254.  Interpreting  a  soul  by  flour- 
ishes, 254,  The  brush  flourish  of  Sieh,  255.  The  Happiness  mono- 
gram of  Chen  Toun,  255.  The  Hall  of  Tablets  in  Sian,  255.  Memo- 
rials of  early  Kings  of  China,  256.  Original  of  the  Pekin  "  Hall  of  the 
Mings,"  256.  A  national  tablet  gallery,  256.  The  stone  classics  of 
Confucius,  256.  Library  of  the  oldest  university,  256.  Perpetuating 
Confucian  wisdom,  257.  A  visit  to  the  Hall  of  Tablets,  257.  The 
crowd  of  sight-seers,  257.  Their  subdued  deportment,  257.  The  Tab- 
let of  the  chrysanthemums,  258.  The  proverbs  and  the  irrelevant  bou- 
quet, 258.  A  fancy  of  Wu  How,  259.  The  portrait  of  Tama,  259. 
Impressionist  methods  in  tablet  portraiture,  260.     The  Nestorian  Tab- 


CONTENTS 

PAGES 

Some  Shensi  Monuments — continued     ....  251-265 

let,  260.  World-wide  interest  it  has  created,  260.  Its  usefulness  as  a 
missionary  argument,  260.  Doubt  as  to  its  authenticity,  260.  Record 
of  first  Christian  Mission  in  China,  260.  Semedo's  account  of  dis- 
covery of  tablet,  261.  Incorrect  account  of  its  present  condition,  261. 
My  visit  to  the  Nestorian  Tablet,  262.     Between  two  Chinese  Tablets, 

262.  The  only  cross  in  Shensi,  262.  The  "illustrious  religion,"  262. 
The  story  of  Olupun,  263.     Early  success  of  the  Nestorian  doctrine, 

263.  Veneration  of  Nestorian  tablet  by  Chinese  antiquaries,  263.  Ob- 
taining an  impression  of  the  cross,  264.  The  supplementary  inscrip- 
tion, 264.     The  faith  of  the  Nestorians,  264.     The  edict  of  Wu  Tsung, 

264.  Relapse  of  "  Illustrious  religion  "  into  Chinese  civilisation,  265. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 
Through  the  Tsinglings 266-281 

Beginning  of  the  journey  to  "  civihsation,"  266.  Necessity  of  the 
southern  route,  266.  Preparing  for  rapid  riding,  266.  Lightening  lug- 
gage, 267.  Farewell  to  the  "mandarin  of  the  Palace,"  267.  Riding 
out  of  Sian,  267.  First  glimpse  of  the  Tsinglings,  268.  The  military 
mandarin's  farewell  to  Mr.  Duncan,  268.  The  temple  of  Fuhi's  birth- 
place, 268.  Lan  tien  and  the  base  of  the  mountains,  269.  The  two 
mandarins,  269.  The  introduction  of  ''New  Learning,"  269.  The 
Empress  Dowager's  strange  edict,  269.  A  talk  with  the  mandarins  of 
Lan  tien  about  New  Learning,  270.  Their  scorn  of  it  as  gentlemen, 
270.  The  sudden  approach  to  the  Tsinglings,  270.  Original  methods 
of  mountain  climbing,  271.  China  seen  from  a  pony's  tail,  271.  Pecul- 
iar intelligence  of  Shensi  ponies,  271.  A  pause  at  the  summit,  272. 
Last  view  of  the  Plain  of  Sian,  272.  Plunging  into  the  wilderness,  272. 
Lonely  solitudes,  273.  Meeting  lumber  carriers  in  the  trails,  273. 
Danger  of  brigands,  273.  Armed  Muleteers,  274.  Dreary  mountain 
villages,  274.  Mountain  inns,  274.  The  sleeplessness  of  muleteers, 
274,  Meals  at  mountain  farm-houses,  274.  Travel  weariness  a  prep- 
aration for  brick  beds,  275.  Jaguars  and  wolves,  275.  Inn-keepers 
stories,  275.     Dogs   of  the  Tsinglings  ;   their  resemblance  to  wolves, 

276.  Their  kindliness  and  lack  of  prejudice,  276.  The  water-shed  of 
China,  276.  The  sources  of  the  Han,  276.  The  spring  on  the  moun- 
tain-side, 277.     Following  the  river  windings,  277.     In  the  Han  gorges, 

277.  Riding  along  precipices,  277.  Sure-footed  ponies,  277.  Danger 
in  meeting  mule  caravans,  278.  An  encounter  with  a  caravan,  278. 
Presence  of  mind  of  the  Shijang,  278.     A  skilful  manoeuvre  of  ponies, 

278.  The  Shijang's  comment,  279.  Undeveloped  possibilities  of  the 
Chinese  soldier,  279.  The  Shen  town  of  Shang,  279.  Refuge  caves  in 
the  mountain-side,  280.  Hiding-places  in  times  of  danger,  280.  Shensi 
habit  of  cave  digging,  280.  Burrowed  farm-houses  in  Sian  Plain,  280. 
Suggested  resemblance  of  Shensi  refuge  caves  to  cliff  dwellers'  remains, 
281.  The  end  of  a  five-days  ride,  281.  Arrival  at  Lung  Ku  Chai,  281. 
Wang's  care  for  his  master's  beard,  281. 


XXVI 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

PAGES 

On  the  Han 283-296 

Embarking  on  a  shallow  river,  283.  Chinese  objection  to  dredging  or 
river  improvements,  283.  Han  River  canoes,  283.  Ancient  system  of 
water-tight  compartments,  284.  Adapting  freight  boats  for  passengers, 
284.  Poles  and  clumsy  oars  as  motive  power,  284.  The  crew  and  the 
lowban,  285.  Contracting  for  a  voyage  through  the  gorges,  285.  Start- 
ing down  the  Han,  285.  The  strange  folk  of  the  gorges,  285.  Their 
resemblance  to  North  American  Indians,  285.  Their  taciturnity,  286. 
Still  ashamed  of  the  queue,  286.  Isolated  life  of  Han  boatman,  286. 
The  religion  of  the  old  river,  287.  The  Pantheism  of  the  gorges,  287. 
Worship  of  the  River  Dragon,  287.  Singing  to  propitiate  the  spirits, 
287.  Boatmen's  dislike  of  discussing  distances,  288.  The  lowban's  ex- 
planation, 288.  Omnipresence  of  evil  spirits,  288.  The  incense  fire  to 
the  river  dragon,  288.  Songs  of  the  boatmen,  288.  Running  aground, 
289.  Dredging  with  a  wooden  hoe,  289.  Difficulties  of  progress  on  the 
Han,  286.     Frequency  of  rapids,  289.     Lowering  a  canoe  over  a  rapid, 

289.  Blockades  of  canoes,  290.     Privileges   of  Prince  Ching's  card, 

290.  Chinese  ability  to  wait,  290.  The  belated  telegraph  operator, 
290.  Wild  beauty  of  the  Han  gorges,  291.  An  interim  of  wilderness 
in  a  crowded  land,  291.  The  restfulness  of  the  shallow  river,  291. 
Precipitous  sides  of  the  gorges,  292.  Varying  tints  of  the  mountain- 
sides, 292.  Dividing  of  the  cliffs  for  the  onrushing  canoe,  292.  Silent 
birds  ;  their  lack  of  fear  of  human  beings,  292.  Boatmen's  regard  for 
birds,  293.  Talk  around  the  incense-fire,  293.  Wang's  "  half  wild 
child  "  questions,  293.  The  dragon  that  is  everywhere,  293.  My  be- 
lief in  his  ultimate  defeat,  294.  Kingste  Kwan,  a  former  mission  sta- 
tion, 294.  An  attack  of  fever,  294.  "The  missionary  of  Sian"asa 
physician,  295.  The  faithfulness  of  Wang,  295.  A  constant  nurse, 
295.  His  sleepless  black  eyes,  296.  Awaking  from  a  delirium,  296. 
My  "  very  good  friend,"  296. 


CHAPTER   XX. 
Through  Hupeh  in  a  Junk 297-313 

Widening  of  the  river,  297.  La  Ho  Kieu,  a  typical  river  town,  297. 
Its  stone  pier  and  gateway,  297.  Return  to  a  thickly  populated  coun- 
try, 297.  Silk  weaving  in  La  Ho  Kieu,  298.  Methods  of  silk  mer- 
chants, 298.  Indifferent  to  making  sales,  298.  The  factory  across 
the  court-yard,  299.  Similarity  between  ancient  Chinese  methods  of 
silk  weaving  and  American  looms,  299.     The  brocaded  silk  of  Hupeh, 

299.  Weaving  of  "  mandarin  cloth,"  300.  Farewell  to  the  men  of  the 
gorges,  300.     Passing  from  a  land  of  dreams  to  a  commercial  highway, 

300.  A  junk  of  the  lower  Han,  300.  Its  cabin  and  dining-room,  301. 
The  "modern"  captain,  301.  A  flapping  sail,  301.  Useless  sails  on 
Han  River,  301.  Towing  from  the  mast  peak,  301.  Passing  junks 
under  the  tow  lines,  302.  Disappearance  of  the  gorges,  302.  River 
villages  and    bamboo    groves,    302.     Water    buffalo ;    their  work  in 


CONTENTS 

PAGES 

Through  Hupeh  in  a  ]viiYi— continued        .        .        .  279-313 

Hupeh  fields,  303.  Their  necessary  daily  immersion,  303.  Vast  ex- 
tent of  the  river  commerce  of  China,  303.  Capacity  of  junks  for  freight- 
carrying,  303.  Ingenuity  in  stowing  cargoes,  304.  Catamarans  of 
timbers,  304.  Improvising  topsails  from  American  cotton,  304.  Chi- 
nese objection  to  improved  methods  of  transportation,  304.  Enormous 
population  dependent  upon  river  traffic  for  a  livelihood,  305.  Chinese 
division  of  labour  a  fixed  quantity,  305.  No  recourse  for  "  unemployed  " 
but  starvation  or  Boxerism,  305.  Significance  of  Boxer  outbreak  on 
the  Pei  Ho  River,  305.  War  junks  of  the  Han,  305.  Their  beauty 
and  swiftness,  306.  Their  soldiers  in  gay  uniforms,  306.  Cleanliness 
of  war-junks  at  variance  with  their  environment,  306.  Escorted  by  a 
succession  of  war-junks,  306.  Salutes  from  a  brass  cannon,  307. 
Drum-beating  at  night,  307,  Success  of  my  expedient  for  stopping 
noise,  307.  Sister  cities  of  Fan  Ching  and  Siang  Yang,  307.  Their 
defence  against  the  armies  of  Kublai  Khan,  308.  Final  surrender  of 
Siang  Yang,  308.  A  residence  of  retired  mandarins,  308.  The  steam 
tug-boat  of  Yo  Hia,  309.  Embarking  on  it,  309.  Length  of  the  jour- 
ney to  Hankow,  309.  Await  at  the  li-king  station,  308.  The  "  mean 
man  "  of  the  station,  310.  The  effect  of  Prince  Ching's  card,  310.  Vic- 
tory over  the  "  mean  man,"  310.     Gratitude  of  the  tug-boat  captain, 

310.  Dropping  anchor  at  Han  Kow,  311.     The  broad,  dark  Yang  tse, 

311.  Alone  in  our  san  pan,  311.  The  silent  Bund,  311.  The  two  men 
who  had  dined  together,  311.  The  newness  of  a  conversation  of  Chris- 
tian civilisation,  31a.     The  end,  313. 


XXVlll 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


TAKEN    BY   AND    FOR   THE   AUTHOR 


FACING 
i'AGK 


H.    I.    H.    Prince   Ching,    ....  Frontispiece 

An  Open  Sesame  to  China  :    Prince  Ching's  Card, 

Viceroy's  Yamen  at  Paoting,  .... 

A  Wenshao, 

Chili  Brickmaking — A  Halt  for  the  Noon-day  Meal, 

A  Granite  Highway 

Soldiers  of  Two  Provinces:    A   Shansi  Policeman  —  A 
Regular  of  Chili, 

An  "  Old  "  Arch,  Shansi 

The  Stone  Curtain — The  Scene  it  Disclosed, 

Approaching  an  Opium  Village,      .... 

Opium  Refuge  in  Tai  Yuan,  .... 

An  Opium  Beggar, 

An  Imperial  Courier,        ...... 

A  Mountain  Chair,  ...... 

Main  Street  of  Kiehiu,  

To  the  Market  in  Ping  Yang — A  Shansi  Mill, 

Where  Once  Was  a  River, 

Crossing  the  Yellow  River  at  Tung  Kwan,  . 


6 
i8 

22 

34 

40 

46 

48 

54 
56 
60 
66 
72 
78 
88 
92 
108 
no 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING 

PAGE 

Plan  of  the  Temple  Enclosure  at  Hua  ih,     .        ,        .118 

Buddhist  Temple  at  Hua  ih, 120 

A  Little  Son  of  Han — By  a  Shensi  Road-side,     .        .134 

On  the  Way  to  Lose  His  Head, 140 

Shensi  Mandarin  and  His  Musicians,     ....  144 
Cave  Over   the  Sulphur  Spring,  Lintoun,        .        ,        .  152 

One  of  the  Pavilions,  Lintoun, 154 

The  American  Kung  Kwan,  Sian,            ....  162 
A  Quiet  Street,  Sian — The  Public  Square,  Sian,           .  168 
Li  Shao  Fen,  Governor  of  Shensi,  and  his  Two  Grand- 
sons     188 

The  Palace  Gate  and  the  Cheerful  Lions,     .        .        .210 

Rung  Lu, 822 

A  Pyramid  of  Sian  Plain,        ......  244 

Gorge  of  the  Wei  Ho :  Ancient  Irrigating  Trench       .  246 

The  Dream  of  Hung  Wu, 252 

The  Happiness  of  Sieh, 254 

Tablet  of  the  Chrysanthemums, 258 

Tama, 260 

The  Nestorian  Tablet, 262 

The  Cross  that  Survived, 264 

The    Nestorian   Tablet — Happiness   with    Divine   Pro- 
tection,   266 

A  Gorge  of   the  Han,  276 

A  Burrowed  Farm  House, 278 

Refuge  Caves  in  the  Tsinglings, 280 

A  Home  on  the  Upper  Han, 284 

Boatmen  of  the  Gorges, 286 

XXX 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


FACING 
PAGE 


Fishers  of  La  Ho  Kieu, 300 

A  River  Freight  Boat, 304 

A  Han  War  Junk, 306 

At  End  of  Volume 

Map  —  Route   of   the   Author's  Journey   Through    Hidden 
Shensi  and  Other  Parts  of  China. 


XXXI 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 


"  When  I  had  JUS i  quitted  my  native  country  and  crossed  tJie  Chinese  wall, 
I  Jancied  every  deviation  Jrotn  tlie  customs  and  tnanners  of  China  was  a  depart- 
ing froTn  nature.  .  .  .  But  I  soon  perceived  that  the  ridicule  lay  not  in  them, 
but  in  me ;  that  I  falsely  condemned  others  for  absurdity,  because  they  happened 
to  differ  from  a  standard  originally  founded  in  prejudice  or  partiality." 

— "Lien  Chi  Altangi — Citizen  of  the  World." 


THROUGH 
HIDDEN    SHENSI 

CHAPTER   I 

STARTING 

IN  the  northwest  corner  of  China  is  a  province 
called  Shensi.  Its  area  is  greater  than  that  of 
England  and  Scotland  combined.  Its  population 
is  nearly  eight  millions.  It  is  old  and  isolated  ;  so 
old  that  no  one  in  China  knows  the  story  of  its 
beginnings,  and  so  isolated  that  the  Pekinese  speak 
of  it  as  though  it  were  a  foreign  country. 

Sian,  the  capital  of  Shensi,  was  selected  as  a 
city  of  refuge  for  the  Empress-dowager  Tsz  Hi  and 
Emperor  Kwang  Su  during  their  enforced  exile,  as 
a  place  where  there  would  be  no  foreign  eyes  to  see 
or  to  desecrate.  Very  few  white  men  have  ever 
entered  hidden  Shensi.  It  is  conservative  and  tra- 
dition-clinging even  for  China.  It  is  in  the  part  of 
the  country  where  hatred  of  the  foreigner  is  bitter- 
est and  most  intense.  So  much  I  learned  about 
Shensi  on  my  arrival  in  Pekin,  but  my  most  dili- 
gent inquiries  could  discover  no  more  than  this. 
The  Christian  Herald,  of  New  York,  had  raised  a 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

fund  for  the  sufferers  from  a  famine  in  Shensi,  and 
had  cabled  the  money  to  the  only  missionary  in 
the  province.  As  agent  of  that  fund,  I  had  been 
sent  to  China  to  investigate  famine-conditions  and 
to  report  on  them.  I  supposed  that  a  few  days' 
journey  into  the  interior  from  Pekin  would  be 
sufficient  for  the  obtaining  of  all  the  information  I 
desired,  but  I  soon  discovered  that  I  was  mistaken. 
The  seven  hundred  and  fifty  miles  that  lay  between 
Pekin  and  Sian  constituted  as  great  an  interval  of 
silence  as  the  distance  between  the  Far  East  and 
the  Far  West.  If  means  of  communication  are  a 
measure  of  distance,  Sian  is  as  far  from  the  coast  of 
China  as  it  is  from  New  York.  In  Pekin,  Chinese 
officials  knew  that  a  famine  was  raging  in  Shensi,  a 
fact  of  which  citizens  of  the  United  States  had 
been  informed  by  Wu  Ting  Fang,  Chinese  minister 
in  Washington,  but,  as  to  details,  no  more  was 
known  in  the  one  place  than  in  the  other.  Two 
days  in  Pekin  convinced  me  that,  in  order  to  dis- 
cover anything  of  conditions  in  Shensi,  I  must  go 
to  Sian. 

The  dangers  of  the  journey  were  fully  explained 
to  me.  I  was  told  that  three  hundred  miles  of  the 
road  over  which  I  should  have  to  travel  would  lead 
through  the  province  of  Shansi,  where  more  mis- 
sionaries had  been  killed  than  in  any  other  of  the 
eighteen  provinces ;  that  nearly  all  of  that  part  of 
the  empire  which  I  proposed  to  visit  was  the  native 
haunt  of  the  Boxer  and  the  foreigner-hater,  and  that 


STARTING 

a  persistence  in  carrying  out  my  intention  of  going 
to  Shensi  was  little  less  than  taking  my  life  in  my 
hands.  In  ignoring  these  warnings  I  was  not  actu- 
ated by  any  motive  of  extraordinary  bravery,  for 
that  I  do  not  possess.  A  man  far  braver  than  I, 
who  believed  the  dangers  to  be  as  great  as  they 
were  pictured  to  me,  would  have  been  compelled  to 
abandon  the  undertaking  at  the  outset,  because  he 
must  have  realised  that  the  odds  against  which  he 
would  have  had  to  fight  would  have  been  over- 
whelming. But  I  chose  to  believe  that  I  should 
not  be  compelled  to  fight,  and  that  no  trouble 
worse  than  the  usual  discomforts  of  travel  in  China 
was  in  store  for  me.  Before  the  allied  armies  with- 
drew from  Pekin,  the  Chinese  Government  had 
pledged  itself  to  protect  the  lives  and  property  of 
foreigners  travelling  through  the  country.  In  de- 
termining upon  my  journey,  I  believed  that  the 
Chinese  meant  what  they  said,  and  I  decided  to 
give  them  the  benefit  of  the  doubt.  I  have  never 
regretted  my  decision,  and  my  experience  in  trav- 
elling 1,500  miles  through  the  heart  of  the  empire 
has  convinced  me  that,  if  the  Chinaman  were  more 
often  given  the  benefit  of  the  doubt,  it  would  be 
better  for  the  foreigner  that  deals  with  him.  The 
first  step  in  my  preparations  for  the  journey  was 
to  provide  myself  with  proper  credentials  that 
would  enable  me  to  claim  government  protection 
anywhere  in  the  provinces  through  which  I  was  to 
pass. 

3 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

Thus  it  came  about  that  one  afternoon  found 
me  swaying,  in  a  Sedan  chair,  through  the  streets 
of  Pekin,  accompanied  by  Mr.  E.  T.  WiUiams, 
Secretary  of  the  American  legation,  on  my  way 
to  talk  over  the  question  of  passports  with  Prince 
Ching,  the  head  of  the  government  in  the  capital. 
On  this  particular  afternoon  a  sand-storm  was  in  full 
blast.  A  Chinese  sand-storm  is  an  overpowering, 
contradictory  thing,  which  seems  at  variance  with 
the  conditions  under  which  it  blows.  Beneath  a 
cloudless  sky,  with  a  wind  not  especially  strong  or 
intense,  clouds  of  sand  arise  and  envelop  and  sub- 
due. No  one  knows  exactly  where  the  sand  comes 
from.  According  to  one  theory,  it  is  a  product  of 
the  desert  of  Gobi.  Its  colour  is  leaden-gray.  There 
is  no  escaping  it.  Mongolian  complexions,  green 
palace-roofs,  top-hats  on  Legation  Street,  even  the 
sun  itself,  take  on  a  tinge  of  the  universal  gray.  The 
entire  populace  rubs  its  smarting  eyes  and  retires 
behind  sheltering  walls.  The  sand  penetrates  every- 
where, and  absorbs  everything,  turning  all  charm 
and  beauty  into  dulness,  making  the  new  seem  old, 
and  the  old,  older.  A  force  that  does  not  wither, 
but  preserves,  and  that  compels  the  earth  to  see  the 
sun-light  only  through  darkened  glasses. 

Through  the  sand-gusts  our  chairs  swayed  and 
lurched,  until,  after  an  hour  and  a  half,  we  were  set 
down  with  a  thump  in  front  of  a  gateway,  where 
a  guard  of  Chinese  soldiers  presented  arms.  A 
sergeant  directed  us  across  a  stone-paved  court-yard 

4 


STARTING 

into  a  parlour  where  Prince  Ching  stood  waiting  to 
receive  us.  He  led  the  way  to  a  little  table  in  a  back 
room,  and  seated  himself  between  Mr.  Williams  and 
myself,  while  a  servant  brought  three  cups  of  tea 
and  a  basket  of  cakes. 

Because  of  his  rank  and  position,  it  is  hardly 
too  much  to  say  that  Prince  Ching  is  the  foremost 
figure  in  the  Chinese  Government  of  to-day.  He 
is  a  Manchu,  and  is  an  uncle  of  the  Emperor.  Be- 
sides holding  a  number  of  minor  offices  and  titles, 
he  is  the  head  of  the  Wa  Wu  Bu,  or  foreign  office, 
which  he  had  much  to  do  with  organising,  and  upon 
which  devolved  a  large  part  of  the  responsibility 
for  the  complex  negotiations  which  ended  in  the 
maintenance  of  the  integrity  of  China,  and  of  the 
payment  of  an  indemnity  to  the  powers.  Li  Hung 
Chang  was  the  only  other  man  prominent  at  court 
who  remained  in  Pekin  while  negotiations  were  in 
progress,  and  his  failing  health  left  Prince  Ching  to 
battle  almost  alone  with  the  diplomatic  forces  of  the 
entire  western  world. 

Prince  Ching  is  apparently  about  sixty-five 
years  old.  His  queue  and  long  goatee  are  gray.  His 
eyes  are  piercing,  and  are  set  far  back  in  his  head. 
His  forehead  is  high,  and  his  lips  thin  and  com- 
pressed. He  is  of  medium  height,  and  his  shoulders 
have  a  slight  inclination  to  stoop.  After  listen- 
ing, through  the  medium  of  Mr.  Williams,  to  an 
expression  of  my  desire  to  go  to  Sian  and  my  rea- 
sons for  undertaking  the   journey.   His  Highness 

5 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

smiled,  approvingly,  and  asked  his  secretary  for  his 
card-case.  From  it  he  drew  a  piece  of  red  paper. 
''  This  is  my  card,"  he  said.  "  It  is  all  you  will 
need  to  obtain  ample  protection  and  assistance  any- 
where in  China.  I  seldom  give  my  card  to  any- 
one, and  it  is  only  because  of  the  interest  which 
Americans  have  taken  in  our  starving  people  that  I 
present  it  to  you."  His  Highness's  card  was  not 
an  imposing-looking  document.  It  was  about  ten 
inches  long  and  three  wide.  On  one  side  of  it  were 
inscribed  the  three  characters  of  his  name.  It  was 
devoid  of  embellishment  of  any  kind,  and  would 
easily  have  passed  for  a  Chinese  laundry^-ticket  at 
home.  It  certainly  did  not  look  as  though  it  pos- 
sessed the  merits  of  an  "  open  sesame,"  and  I  fear 
that  my  doubts  on  the  subject  found  vent  in  my 
expression  as  he  handed  it  to  me.  Mr.  Williams 
expressed  to  Prince  Ching  my  gratitude  for  his 
card,  but  he  added  that  he  thought  it  would  be 
better  if  my  American  passport  could  be  made 
effective  for  travel  in  China. 

This  His  Highness  readily  agreed  to  do.  He 
took  my  passport  and  looked  at  it.  My  English 
name  would  not  do  at  all.  *'  I  will  adapt  it  for 
you,"  he  said.  He  informed  me  that  no  name  was 
legal  in  China  unless  authorised  by  the  "  book  of 
surnames." 

Prince  Ching  noticed  my  kodak  in  my  pocket 
as  I  rose  to  go,  and  he  asked  what  it  was.  When  I 
explained  to   him   its  uses,  he  inquired  if  it  were 

6 


AN    OPEN  SESAME    TO    CHINA PRINCE    CHING  S    CARD. 


STARTING 

capable  of  taking  his  piiotograpii.  I  informed  him 
that  I  thought  it  was,  and  he  posed  himself  in  front 
of  it  in  the  centre  of  his  court-yard,  where  all  the 
light  that  could  filter  through  the  sand-cloud  fell 
full  on  his  face. 

The  next  day  my  adapted  passport  was  returned 
to  the  United  States  legation.  It  bore  the  seal  of 
the  Taotai  of  Pekin.  It  described  my  name  in 
three  characters  as  Na  Ko  Su.  It  said  that  my 
mission  was  one  of  peace,  and  it  directed  the  gov- 
ernors of  the  provinces  of  Chili,  Shansi,  Shensi, 
Hupeh,  and  Honan  to  give  me  every  aid  and  pro- 
tection within  their  power.  It  was  just  the  kind  of 
a  paper  that  I  had  desired,  and  its  formidable  rows  of 
characters  and  its  quaint  seal  made  me  confident  of 
being  able  to  get  into  Shensi  and  out  again  without 
any  additional  credentials.  I  had  yet  to  learn  that 
all  the  characters  in  the  Chinese  alphabet,  and  all 
the  seals  in  the  empire,  did  not  possess  one-tenth  of 
the  value  of  that  little  piece  of  red  paper  on  which 
was  only  the  name  of  the  prime  minister  of  China. 

Without  muc  difficulty,  I  secured  the  services, 
as  cook,  of  a  Shantung  man,  a  Christian  convert,  who 
had  been  a  sort  of  native  evangelist.  From  his 
missionary  education  he  had  learned  to  sing  "  Hold 
the  Fort"  and  "Jerusalem  the  Golden,"  in  loud 
Chinese,  and  also  to  fry  ham  and  to  make  buck- 
wheat-cakes, in  accordance  with  the  directions  on 
the  can  of  baking-powder.  But  the  obtaining  of  an 
interpreter  was  a  much  more  serious  problem.     My 

7 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

absolute  lack  of  knowledge  of  everything  Chinese 
made  it  imperative  that  I  should  have  with  me 
someone  who  was  familiar  with  the  ways  of  man- 
darins and  who  could  be  my  prompter  and  guide  as 
well  as  my  medium  of  speech.  After  several  days 
of  searching,  I  was  introduced  to  Wang.  He  was 
twenty  years  old  and  of  rather  diminutive  stature. 
He  had  clear,  yellow  skin  and  bright,  red  cheeks. 
He  wore  a  velvet  blouse,  a  gray,  kilt  riding-skirt, 
and  around  his  waist  a  yellow  sash.  His  queue 
was  neatly  braided,  and  was  elaborated  into  a  silk 
knot  at  the  end  after  the  fashion  of  Pekin  swells. 
When  I  sounded  his  knowledge  of  Shensi,  he  re- 
plied, quickly,  "  I  know  nothing  of  that  country, 
sir,  except  that  it  is  a  far  way,  but  if  I  follow  with 
you  I  will  try — to  serve  you  and  we  can  do." 

This  answer  won  me,  and  then  and  there  I  en- 
gaged him. 

Our  party  of  three,  with  several  piles  of  camp- 
outfit  and  a  supply  of  American  canned  foods,  took 
the  southward-bound  train  at  seven  o'clock  one 
morning  at  the  platform  just  outside  Chen  Men 
gate. 

With  Prince  Ching's  card  in  my  pocket,  I 
settled  down  on  a  pile  of  blankets  on  a  corner  of 
the  bench  in  my  compartment  of  the  car,  which 
only  a  label  distinguished  from  the  rest  as  "  first- 
class  accommodation."  The  diminutive  locomotive 
at  the  other  end  of  the  long  train  whistled  and 
wheezed.      The    Chinese    conductor    kicked    two 

8 


STARTING 

coolies  off  the  steps  of  the  car.  The  crowd  on  the 
platform  jabbered  and  shouted,  and  the  car-wheels 
slowly  began  to  revolve  over  the  first  of  the  750 
miles  of  my  journey.  I  was  off  for  Shensi,  the 
land  of  Fu  Hi  and  the  dragon.  Shensi,  the  cradle 
of  the  Chinese  race,  the  home  of  "  old  "  families, 
where  the  2,000  years  of  Pekin  are  regarded  as 
only  a  yesterday,  and  whose  civilisation  was  ancient 
when  Romulus  and  Remus  were  wolf's  children. 


CHAPTER  II 

PEKIN   TO    PAOTING 

THE  road  from  Pekin  to  Sian  crosses  three 
provinces  :  Chili,  Shansi,  and  Shensi.  Shansi 
is  separated  from  Shensi  only  by  the  Yellow  River, 
down  which  are  supposed  to  have  come  the  first 
of  the  Chinese  race  about  3,000  years  before  the 
Christian  era.  The  names  Shansi  and  Shensi  are 
often  coupled  by  the  Chinese  in  referring  to  the 
land  of  their  beginnings.  In  fact,  the  difference  of 
vowels  in  their  spelling  is  only  a  foreign  adaptation. 
In  the  native  nomenclature  the  pronunciation  of 
the  names  of  both  provinces  is  the  same,  except 
that  Shensi  is  given  more  of  a  falling  inflection 
than  Shansi. 

Before  the  advent  of  the  railroad,  the  journey 
was  divided  into  four  stages :  the  first,  of  1 50  miles 
is  to  Chengting,  in  Chili ;  and  the  second  is  of  about 
the  same  distance  to  Tai  Yuan,  in  Shansi.  The 
next  stage,  the  longest,  is  from  Tai  Yuan  to  Tung 
Kwan,  on  the  Shensi  border,  about  350  miles,  while 
the  fourth,  and  last  stage  of  100  miles,  extends  thence 
to  Sian.  With  native  methods  of  travel,  the  entire 
journey  formerly  occupied  from  five  to  six  weeks. 
By  the  aid  of  the  railroad  over  the  greater  part  of 

10 


PEKIN    TO    PAOTING 

the  first  stage,  I  was  able  to  accomplish  it  within 
twenty-nine  days  after  leaving  Pekin. 

The  railroad  through  Chili  has  found  the  strug- 
gle for  existence  a  hard  one.  It  has  had  to  con- 
tend with  the  deep-rooted  prejudices  of  the  race 
among  whom  it  has  laid  two  lines  of  undulating 
rail.  Its  building  was  an  international  effort,  and 
evidences  of  the  struggles  by  which  its  right  of  way 
was  wrung,  mile  by  mile,  from  the  government  are 
apparent  along  the  entire  line.  The  first  section  is 
of  English  construction,  the  next  of  French,  and 
the  last  few  miles  have  been  added  by  Belgians. 
The  result  is  a  mixture  of  the  railway-construction- 
methods  of  the  entire  western  world.  Part  of  the 
track  is  ballasted  with  rock  and  part  with  sand.  In 
one  section  the  bridges  are  of  stone  and  in  the  next 
of  wood.  Some  of  the  locomotives  were  made  in 
the  United  States  and  others  in  Belgium.  The  cars 
were  built  in  China,  after  French  models.  The  en- 
gineers, firemen,  and  conductors  are  Chinese,  while 
the  station-agents  are  usually  either  French  or  Ger- 
mans. 

Much  as  the  Chinese  disliked  the  idea  of  a  rail- 
road at  the  beginning,  it  has  lately  become  im- 
mensely popular  with  them.  They  take  great  pride 
in  it,  and  are  very  fond  of  telling  you  how  it  is 
now  possible  to  go  300  li  (100  miles)  in  half  a  day. 

The  trains  are  all  of  the  variety  known  in  Amer- 
ica as  "mixed."  Only  a  few  of  the  cars  are  for 
passengers.    The  rest  are  either  freight  or  open  flat- 

II 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

cars,  on  which  are  huddled  every  kind  of  merchan- 
dise and  live-stock  imaginable — chickens,  bales  of 
cotton,  kerosene-oil,  horses,  carts,  and  fodder  in 
indescribable  confusion,  with  their  owners  riding 
beside  the  goods  they  own.  The  majority  of  ship- 
pers in  China  place  little  reliance  in  waybills,  and 
usually  accompany  to  its  destination  anything  they 
send  over  a  railroad. 

Crude  as  the  railroad  is,  it  is  a  beginning  which 
may  some  day  connect  Hankow  and  the  Yangtse 
with  Pekin.  Another  line  northward  was  opened 
in  January,  1902,  from  Hankow  to  the  southern 
borders  of  Honan.  By-and-by,  the  two  lines  will 
meet  somewhere  near  the  ancient  city  of  Kaifeng, 
and  the  "  steam-dragon  "  will  be  supreme  in  China. 

The  railroad  from  Pekin  follows  the  line  of  the 
old  government  high-road  across  the  plain  of  Chili. 
There  is  seldom  a  minute  in  the  journey  when  a 
look  through  the  car-window  does  not  reveal  carts, 
and  mules  and  horses,  toiling  along  through  the 
dust  in  the  same  ruts  that  have  been  travelled  for 
thousands  of  years.  It  is  a  paralleling  of  the  old 
and  the  new  that  I  have  seen  nowhere  else  in 
China.  The  place  for  changing  cars  is  Paoting, 
the  capital  of  the  Province  of  Chili,  one  hundred 
miles  from  Pekin.  The  railroad  does  not  enter  the 
town,  but  passes  three  miles  to  the  westward  of  it. 
The  train  stops  beside  a  pile  of  sand,  left  over  from 
the  track-ballasting.  Into  it  freight,  baggage,  and 
passengers  are  dumped  promiscuously,  to  be  gathered 

12 


PEKIN   TO    PAOTING 

by  cart-drivers,  who  are  quite  as  eager  and  com- 
petitive as  Forty-second  Street  cabmen.  A  mis- 
sionary once  described  Paoting  to  me  as  a  city  which 
"persecuted  the  prophets,  and  was  humbled  in  the 
dust."  I  thought  of  this  description  as  our  cart- 
wheels sank  hub-deep  in  the  bed  of  white  sand, 
which  constituted  the  road  to  the  town.  Whatever 
humbling  has  fallen  to  the  lot  of  poor,  dreary,  dirty, 
old  Paoting  has  certainly  been  of  a  very  dusty 
character. 

The  population  of  Paoting  is  variously  es- 
timated at  from  30,000  to  60,000.  Previous  to  the 
Boxer  uprising,  it  was  looked  upon  as  one  of  the 
few  cities  in  Northern  China  which  manifested  a 
turning  toward  the  light  of  Christianity.  It  was  the 
centre  of  great  missionary  activity  and  it  contained 
two  large  institutional  missions.  Within  an  in- 
closure,  at  the  south  end  of  the  town,  were  the 
schools,  hospitals,  and  church-buildings  of  the 
American  Congregationalists,  while  a  similar  series 
of  institutions  at  the  northern  limit  of  Paoting  were 
maintained  by  American  Presbyterians. 

The  Roman  Catholics,  too,  had  a  large  church 
and  school,  and  made  converts  at  the  rate  of  a 
thousand  a  year.  Missionaries  of  all  three  faiths 
began  to  look  forward,  hopefully,  to  the  time  when 
the  capital  of  Chili  would  be  reclaimed  from  the 
darkness  of  heathendom.  But  there  came  a  day, 
in  the  early  part  of  1900,  when  the  storm  rose  ; 
with  little  warning,    with  comparatively    little  ex- 

13 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

citement,  swarms  of  Boxers  suddenly  poured  into 
Paoting.  Accounts  vary  as  to  whence  they  came. 
It  may  have  been  from  Shantung ;  perhaps,  it  was 
from  Shansi  ;  but,  whatever  their  origin,  or  the 
direct  causes  which  brought  them  thither,  certain 
it  is  that  in  a  few  hours  they  had  darkened  the 
streets  of  the  town,  and  had  begun,  deliberately  and 
systematically,  to  put  out  all  "  foreign  light." 

They  surrounded  the  mission-compounds,  and 
killed  every  one  of  the  missionaries.  As  there  were 
no  survivors  of  the  massacre,  one  has  to  depend  for 
accounts  of  it  on  the  stories  of  native  eye-witnesses. 
Although  these  vary  considerably,  they  would  all 
indicate  that  the  awful  murders  were  not  accom- 
plished with  any  more  cruelty  or  publicity  than  was 
considered  necessary  to  let  all  China  know  that  the 
work  was  done  thoroughly.  No  one  was  spared. 
Even  some  foreign  employees  of  the  railroad  were 
put  to  death.  The  mission-buildings  were  burned, 
and  their  ruins  would  be  difficult  of  identification 
to-day,  were  it  not  for  a  row  of  little  headstones 
in  a  cabbage-field,  close  to  the  former  Congregational 
mission,  marking  the  graves  of  more  than  twenty 
men  and  women.  Then  the  storm  passed  over,  and 
Paoting  settled  down  again  to  walk  in  the  paths 
its  fathers  had  trod  for  centuries.  But  it  was  a 
quiet  of  short  duration.  After  the  taking  of  Pekin, 
it  was  one  of  the  first  places  toward  which  the  allied 
armies  turned  their  attention. 

It  was  the  objective  point  of  several  of  the 
14 


PEKIN    TO    PAOTING 

earliest  and  most  severe  "punitive  expeditions." 
English,  French,  and  German  columns  vied  with 
each  other  in  impressing  upon  the  inhabitants  of 
Paoting  the  futility  of  opposition  to  the  spread  of  the 
Gospel.  The  leading  official  of  the  town  was  tried 
by  court-martial,  was  found  guilty  of  being  a  Boxer, 
and  was  publicly  beheaded. 

Temples,  where  generations  of  men  had  pros- 
trated themselves  before  the  gilded  Buddhas,  and 
the  tablets  of  Confucius,  were  levelled  to  the  ground. 
The  idols  were  overthrown  and  chopped  to  pieces. 
A  huge,  gaping  hole  was  blown  with  dynamite  in 
the  old  city  wall,  in  order  to  convince  the  citizens 
that  they  were  wrong  in  supposing  it  invulner- 
able. An  indemnity  of  many  thousand  taels  was 
levied  upon  Paoting,  and  the  way  was  cleared  for 
"mission-work"  to  begin  over  again.  It  was  not 
the  only  place  in  northwestern  China  where  mission- 
aries were  murdered  by  Boxers.  Awful  as  the  mas- 
sacre was,  the  number  killed  was  not  so  great  as  in 
Tai  Yuan,  the  capital  of  Shansi,  where  the  mo- 
tives and  methods  were  more  deliberate  and  cold- 
blooded. But  Tai  Yuan  escaped  with  only  the 
payment  of  an  indemnity,  and  a  "suicide-order"  for 
the  governor  of  the  province.  Tai  Yuan  can  be 
reached  only  by  long,  toilsome  marches  through  the 
mountains,  which  make  the  hauling  of  artillery- 
trains  and  commissary-wagons  exceedingly  difficult, 
but  Paoting  was  easily  accessible  from  Pekin. 
Therefore,  Paoting  was  punished. 

IS 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

At  Paoting  I  was,  for  two  days,  the  guest  of  a 
Presbyterian  missionary,  the  only  white  man  in  the 
place.  He  was  an  American,  and  a  graduate  of 
Princeton.  It  is  only  by  the  accident  of  a  chance- 
absence  from  his  station  at  the  time  of  the  mas- 
sacre, that  he  is  alive  to-day.  All  of  the  victims  of 
the  storm  of  Boxer  fanaticism  were  his  intimate 
friends.  Yet,  for  their  murderers,  the  people  to 
whom  he  had  devoted  his  life,  he  had  nothing  but 
expressions  of  kindness.  The  "  Forgive  them ; 
they  know  not  what  they  do"  spirit  was  always 
uppermost.  Strong  as  was  the  anti-foreign  and 
anti-christian  sentiment  in  Paoting,  this  missionary 
was  universally  beloved.  The  reception-room  of  his 
little  compound  was  a  favourite  meeting-place  for 
the  scholars  of  the  town,  who  liked  to  discuss  with  him 
the  relative  merits  of  Confucianism  and  the  Bible. 
During  our  stay  at  his  house  I  was  surprised  to 
see  a  Buddhist  priest  enter  the  court-yard,  and  make 
a  low  kow-tow.  "  Oh,  that  chap  came  to  thank  me 
for  saving  his  temple,"  was  my  host's  reply,  when  I 
inquired  the  cause  of  such  an  unusual  visit.  **  You 
see,"  he  continued,  "  he  is  a  good  man,  according  to 
his  lights.  I  have  known  him  and  argued  with  him 
for  many  years.  The  Germans  decided  to  destroy 
all  but  a  very  few  temples.  Out  of  regard  for  my 
friendship  for  that  priest,  I  went  to  the  colonel  and 
pleaded  that  the  temple  of  which  he  was  in  charge 
might  be  spared.  My  request  was  granted,  and  the 
temple  is  standing    to-day.      It   wasn't  more  than 

i6 


PEKIN   TO    PAOTING 

anyone  would  do  for  a  friend.  I  really  don't  de- 
serve the  thanks  he  gives  me.  But  the  best  part 
of  it  is,  that  he  is  beginning  to  think  that  Christian- 
ity is  a  queer  sort  of  religion  that  would  make  me, 
a  foreigner  and  a  missionary,  go  out  of  my  way 
to  do  anything  for  a  Buddhist.  He  has  just  asked 
me  for  a  copy  of  the  New  Testament,  in  order  that 
he  can  see  for  himself  what  it  has  to  say  about  for- 
giveness of  enemies." 

If  China  is  ever  to  be  converted,  it  is  little  acts 
of  genuine  Christianity  like  this  that  will  do  it, 
not  Maxim-guns,  or  dynamite,  or  indemnities.  The. 
man  whose  hospitality  I  enjoyed  at  Paoting  was 
a  rare  missionary.  It  is  the  very  few  such  as  he 
who  are  the  hope  of  Christianity  in  China  to-day. 

Being  the  provincial  capital,  Paoting  is  the 
nominal  residence  of  the  Viceroy  of  Chili.  Al- 
though Li  Hung  Chang  held  the  office  of  Viceroy, 
he  had  not  visited  the  city  for  several  years  prior  to 
his  death.  The  Viceroy's  yamen,  or  official  resi- 
dence, in  the  heart  of  the  town,  was,  however,  always 
kept  in  repair  and  ready  for  his  occupancy.  It  is  a 
long,  one-story  building,  with  two  stone  lions  guard- 
ing the  gateway  and  two  long,  slanting  flag-poles 
always  in  readiness  to  fly  the  Viceroy's  flag  in 
case  he  should  see  fit  to  visit  his  capital.  In  his 
absence  the  government  of  the  province  devolves 
upon  the  Fantai,  or  provincial  treasurer.  The 
man  who  held  that  office  at  the  time  of  my  visit 
was   Chou    Fu,    an    elderly,   stout   mandarin,   who 

17 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

had  been  selected  for  the  post  because  of  his  repu- 
tation for  fairness  and  his  ability  to  get  on  with 
foreigners.  It  was  Chou  Fu  who  was  really  to 
start  me  on  my  journey  to  the  interior  and  give  me 
my  final  credentials  before  I  said  farewell  to  rail- 
roads and  all  other  forms  of  modernity.  Shortly 
after  my  arrival,  a  messenger  brought  me  his  red 
card,  and  a  few  minutes  later  its  owner  stepped  from 
his  sedan  chair  at  the  gate  of  the  missionary  com- 
pound. 

He  was  accompanied  by  an  escort  of  about 
twenty  men.  He  told  me,  in  a  direct,  business-like 
way,  that  he  had  been  informed  of  my  coming  by  a 
telegram  from  Prince  Ching,  and  that  he  had  de- 
cided to  give  me  an  escort  of  soldiers,  who  would 
accompany  me  as  far  as  the  borders  of  Shansi,  and 
who  would  be  responsible  for  my  safety  while  in 
Chili.  "  You  are  not  accustomed  to  travelling  in 
China  ?  "  asked  the  Fantai.  I  told  him  that  I  was 
not.  "  Then  let  me  give  you  a  few  suggestions. 
As  far  as  possible,  wear  Chinese  clothes,  eat  our 
food,  and  try  to  live  as  we  do.  You  will  get  along 
a  great  deal  better  if  you  do." 

I  inquired  about  the  advisability  of  carrying 
a  revolver  to  protect  myself  in  case  of  attack. 
"Don't  do  it,"  was  the  reply.  "Let  all  your  escort 
know  that  you  are  unarmed,  and  that  you  depend 
on  them  for  protection.  If  you  carry  firearms  they 
may  think  that  you  are  able  to  take  care  of  yourself, 
but  if  you  are  unarmed  they  will  realise  that  their 

i8 


PEKIN    TO    PAOTING 

heads  will  be  cut  off  if  anything  happens  to  you." 
I  followed  the  Fantai's  advice,  and  carried  no  more 
serious  weapon  than  a  kodak  through  China.  By 
noon  of  the  next  day  we  were  at  Ting,  the  terminus 
of  the  railroad.  In  front  of  the  official  inn  I 
found  an  escort  of  soldiers  awaiting  me.  They 
were  six  in  number — great,  big,  strapping  fellows, 
in  red  blouses,  with  Mauser  rifles  swung  over  their 
shoulders.  They  saluted  as  I  emerged  from  a  tiffin 
of  boiled  mutton  and  pickled  ducks'-eggs.  Our 
luggage  was  thrown  into  a  cart.  Two  of  the  sol- 
diers rode  beside  it,  and  the  remaining  four  closed 
in  behind  Wang  and  myself.  The  sergeant,  or 
shi  jang,  looked  back  to  see  that  the  cart  was  fol- 
lowing, kicked  his  pony  in  the  ribs,  and  we  were 
off  across  Chili. 

The  further  one  penetrates  into  the  "  Middle 
Kingdom,"  the  more  forcibly  does  he  become  con- 
vinced that  most  of  his  preconceived  ideas  of  the 
Chinese  are  wrong.  In  the  treaty  ports  he  has  been 
told  by  devout  missionaries  that  the  people  among 
whom  he  is  to  travel  are  "  heathen,"  and  that  much  of 
their  philosophy  and  system  of  living  is  merely  the 
result  of  the  promptings  of  the  devil.  He  has  been 
assured  by  foreign  merchants  and  traders  that  a 
Chinaman  is  a  barbarian  and  an  inferior,  a  sort  of 
combination  of  child  and  knave,  whom  a  severe 
course  of  discipline  may  render  capable  of  being 
a  servant  to  a  white  man,  but  who  can  never  be 
taken  seriously,  and  who  can  seldom  be  trusted. 

19 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

But,  after  treaty  ports  and  steamships  and  con- 
suls and  railroads  are  left  behind,  and  the  traveller 
from  the  West  is  once  fairly  started  on  his  way 
through  that  vast,  swarming,  indefinite  land,  which 
men  on  the  coast  refer  to  as  "  the  interior,"  he 
begins  to  realise  that  he  is  in  the  midst  of  a  perfect 
system  of  civilisation — a  civilisation  different  from, 
and  often  quite  the  reverse  of  his  own,  but  one,  never- 
theless, that  is  in  many  ways  more  complete  than 
any  he  has  ever  known  before,  in  which  nothing 
ever  happens  by  chance,  where  there  is  a  reason  for 
everything,  founded  on  an  experience  that  began 
when  the  world  was  young. 

One  of  the  first  evidences  of  this  is  the  system 
by  which  the  bearer  of  government  credentials  is 
guarded  and  cared  for  on  his  journey  through  the 
country.  The  protection  afforded  by  Prince  Ching's 
card  means  much  more  than  a  mere  general  super- 
vision, such  as  providing  the  traveller  with  an  escort 
of  soldiers,  and  then  leaving  him  to  shift  for  himself. 

No  matter  where,  or  how  far,  he  travels,  there 
is  never  a  minute  of  the  journey  when  there  is  not 
some  provincial  official  who  is  responsible  for  his 
safety.  Should  he  suffer  the  slightest  loss  along  the 
route,  the  responsibility  can  be  fixed  immediately, 
and  the  official  in  whose  district  it  occurred  can  be 
held  accountable,  and  is  liable  to  severe  punishment. 
The  traveller's  journey  is  mapped  out  for  him  before- 
hand. He  knows  how  many  days  it  will  take  him 
to  go  from  one  place  to  another.    Through  govern- 

20 


PEKIN    TO    PAOTING 

ment  channels,  he  can  always  obtain  as  many  mules 
or  carts  as  may  be  necessary  for  the  transportation 
of  himself  and  his  luggage.  A  lodging  is  provided 
for  him  at  night,  and,  yet,  he  is  in  everything  a  free 
agent.  In  no  sense  is  he  "personally  conducted." 
He  is  never  annoyed  by  effusive  hospitality,  much 
less  by  incivility  or  insult.  Once  arrived  in  a  town 
or  village,  he  can  go  where  he  likes,  visit  whatever 
points  of  interest  he  wishes,  ask  all  the  questions 
that  come  into  his  head,  and  he  will  be  treated  far 
more  kindly  than  would  a  newly  arrived  Chinese 
laundryman  in  an  interior  American  town.  It  is  a 
unique  and  original  system,  which,  in  the  West, 
finds  a  counterpart  only  in  the  bill-of-lading  for 
the  transfer  of  freight  across  countries  that  we  are 
pleased  to  call  civilised. 

The  wenshao  is  the  Chinese  bill-of-lading,  for 
the  traveller  and  all  his  belongings.  It  is  issued  by 
the  mandarin  of  the  shen,  or  district,  from  which 
the  journey  begins.  It  consists  of  a  folded  piece 
of  thin  paper,  on  one  side  of  which  is  set  forth  a 
description  of  the  traveller  and  a  list  of  his  effects. 
His  passports  and  credentials  are  also  described, 
and  the  number  of  mules,  or  carts,  necessary  for  his 
transportation,  is  enumerated. 

On  the  opposite  side  of  the  wenshao  is  the 
seal  of  the  mandarin  who  issues  it.  It  is  addressed 
to  the  mandarin  of  a  shen  some  six  days'  journey 
distant,  who,  on  receiving  it,  must  issue  another 
similar    document  to   a  mandarin  equally   distant. 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSl 

In  addition  to  this,  at  every  intermediate  town 
which  marks  the  end  of  a  day's  journey,  the  man- 
darin is  obliged  to  affix  his  seal,  his  signature,  and 
the  name  of  his  district,  or  shen.  The  wenshao  thus 
becomes  a  complete  record  of  the  traveller's  progress, 
with  the  responsibility  for  his  safety  always  resting 
upon  the  mandarin  who  last  signed  it.  Another 
benefit  conferred  by  the  workings  of  a  wenshao  is 
the  immunity  it  gives  to  its  bearer  from  the  horrors 
of  Chinese  inns.  In  every  town  or  village,  no 
matter  how  small,  there  is,  at  least,  one  inn,  for 
the  convenience,  or — to  speak  more  correctly — for 
the  inconvenience,  of  the  public.  Few  forms  of 
human  habitation  anywhere  in  the  world  can  be 
more  cheerless  or  inhospitable.  Imagine  a  large, 
square  yard,  filled  with  a  heterogeneous  collection 
of  carts,  merchandise,  braying  mules,  and  kicking 
ponies,  and  you  will  have  some  idea  of  what  the 
most  important  part  of  an  inn  is  like.  Around 
three  sides  of  the  court-yard  are  long,  one-story 
sheds,  built  of  mud,  and  covered  with  thatched, 
straw  roofs.  In  these  are  the  rooms  of  the  inn's 
patrons.  The  only  furniture  in  each  room  consists 
of  two  mud-beds,  or  kongs,  a  small  table,  and  two 
chairs.  Here  meals  are  served.  The  menu  usu- 
ally includes  rice,  tea,  and,  in  some  parts  of  the 
country,  of  mian,  a  kind  of  macaroni.  By  the  pay- 
ment of  a  few  cash,  your  cook  is  given  access  to 
the  oven,  in  the  inn  court-yard,  and  is  allowed  to 
prepare  such  food  as  he  can  purchase  in  the  town- 


V' 


■#,.^ 


Zi 


1 


"""•Hjjf 


A    WEXSHAO. 


PEKIN    TO    PAOTING 

market.  Another  constant  source  of  delight  in  an 
inn  is  found  in  the  "razorback"  hogs,  which  the 
proprietor  frequently  keeps  as  pets,  and  which  he 
permits  to  range  at  will  through  his  patrons'  rooms. 
The  hogs  are  very  well  domesticated,  and  have  a 
happy  way  of  rubbing  up  against  your  legs  when 
you  are  eating  your  evening  meal,  and  of  climbing 
up  on  your  kong  after  you  have  blown  out  the  can- 
dles. Besides  the  hogs,  there  are  swarms  of  fleas, 
and  insects  silent  and  stealthy  that  are  more  often 
endured  than  mentioned.  Anyone  who  travels 
through  China  can  make  up  his  mind  that  he  will 
have  to  undergo  a  certain  amount  of  "life"  at 
inns,  but,  provided  with  a  wenshao,  he  can  avoid 
it  in  all  the  larger  towns  by  staying  at  the  kung 
kwans. 

A  kung  kwan  is  an  official  hotel  owned  by  the 
municipality  and  under  the  control  of  the  shen 
mandarin.  The  banchaiti,  as  the  man  in  charge  of 
it  is  called,  is  a  member  of  the  mandarin's  official 
household.  Upon  the  arrival  in  the  town  of  a  man 
with  a  wenshao,  it  is  the  business  of  the  banchaiti 
to  take  a  corps  of  servants,  whom  he  has  engaged 
for  the  purpose,  to  the  kung  kwan,  open  it,  and 
clean  it,  as  much  as  Chinese  houses  are  ever  cleaned. 
He  must  also  have  two  cups  of  tea  made  for  the 
traveller  to  drink  immediately  on  his  arrival.  These 
preparations  completed,  the  banchaiti  replaces  his 
dirty  cap  with  a  mandarin's  hat  as  a  reminder  of  his 
official  position,  and  then,  with  the  mandarin's  card 

23 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

in    his   hand,  he   stands  at  the  door,   awaiting  his 
guest. 

The  style  of  kung  kwan  architecture  is  about  the 
same  in  all  parts  of  China.  The  official  inn  is  usually 
built  of  stone,  one  story  in  height,  at  the  rear  of  a 
series  of  court-yards.  Few  kung  kwans  are  less  than 
a  hundred  years  old,  and  many  of  them  received  their 
first  guest  several  centuries  ago.  Because  their  oc- 
cupants are  usually  mandarins,  they  are  arranged 
with  a  special  view  to  an  observance  of  Chinese 
official  etiquette  and  good  form.  The  motif  in 
their  construction  is  the  principle  of  right  and  left, 
which  pervades  every  department  of  mandarin  life 
and  ceremonial.  In  eating,  sleeping,  talking,  and 
walking,  anywhere  amid  Chinese  civilisation,  the 
left  hand  is  always  the  place  of  honour.  The  right 
hand  is  an  inferior  position,  which  the  stranger  from 
the  West  must  carefully  avoid  if  he  wishes  to  retain 
the  respect  of  the  people  among  whom  he  is  living. 
The  centre  room  of  the  kung  kwan  is  a  square  hall 
which  serves  as  a  parlour  and  dining-room.  Against 
the  wall  facing  the  entrance  is  a  large  divan  called 
a  konjr-  A  low  table  in  the  centre  divides  it  into 
two  seats.  For  a  kung  kwan  guest  to  so  far  forget 
himself  after  a  hard  day's  ride  as  to  drop  down  at 
the  rio^ht  side  of  the  little  table  would  be  a  breach 
of  good  manners  almost  unpardonable.  Extending 
from  both  sides  of  the  main  hall  are  two  wings, 
each  containing  one  room.  The  one  at  the  right 
is  often  far  the  more  comfortable  of  the  two,  but 

24 


PEKIN   TO   PAOTING 

you  must  not  occupy  it.  If  you  do,  and  allow 
your  interpreter  to  have  the  left-hand  room,  he,  and 
not  you,  will  receive  a  kow-tow  from  the  banchaiti 
as  he  brings  the  morning  cup  of  tea.  Although 
kung  kwans  are  far  better  furnished  than  the  ma- 
jority of  houses  in  the  Empire,  the  beds  are  no  less 
primitive  in  construction  than  those  on  which  sleep 
the  poorest  of  the  population. 

A  Chinese  bed  is  a  pile  of  bricks  about  five  feet 
in  width  and  four  in  height,  built  across  an  alcove 
or  along  one  end  of  a  room.  The  art  of  sleeping  on 
such  a  bed  cannot  be  acquired  in  one  night.  One 
must  have  had  many  long  days'  rides  on  a  hard- 
gaited  pony ;  he  must  have  been  fatigued  to  the 
point  of  exhaustion  by  sun  and  dust  and  wind  be- 
fore he  can  sleep  soundly  on  that  unyielding  pile  of 
bricks.  Even  after  he  has  learned  how  to  do  so,  he 
must  never  be  surprised  or  annoyed  if,  for  the  first 
few  hours  of  the  next  day,  his  joints  ache  painfully, 
and  he  has  sensations  similar  to  convalescence  from 
rheumatism.  In  sleeping  a  Chinaman  ties  and  but- 
tons around  him  a  sort  of  folding-quilt,  called  a 
pooka.  I  modified  this  device  into  a  sleeping- 
sack  made  of  goat-skin,  which  enveloped  me  from 
head  to  foot.  While  it  succeeded  in  keeping  out 
the  cold,  it  did  not  in  any  way  mitigate  the  discom- 
fort of  the  brick-pile.  I  once  asked  a  banchaiti 
why  springs  or  mattresses  were  an  impossibility. 
The  substance  of  his  answer  was  that  the  insect 
life  of  China  was  so  numerous  and  rampant  that, 

25 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

were  occidental  beds  introduced,  the  sleeper  would 
have  to  endure  active  discomfort  that  would  be  far 
worse  than  the  present  negative  form.  It  was  quite 
as  serious  an  error,  the  banchaiti  thought,  to  have 
too  much  in  a  bed  as  too  little.  I  have  not  quoted 
the  banchaiti  literally,  but  I  have,  I  hope,  para- 
phrased his  language  sufficiently  closely  to  explain 
the  reason  for  the  mercilessness  of  kung  kwan 
beds.  Like  everything  else  Chinese,  there  is  true 
philosophy  in  their  construction,  the  adaptation  of 
means  to  an  end,  and  in  this  case  the  end  is  surely 
most  commendable. 

Every  kung  kwan  is  provided  with  a  first-class 
Chinese  oven,  where  American  food  can  be  pre- 
pared with  little  difficulty,  but  a  constant  diet  of 
canned  tomatoes  and  corned  beef  became  so  monoto- 
nous that  I  soon  was  glad  to  avail  myself  of  the 
native  food  which  the  banchaitis  provided  for  me. 
My  experience  of  kung  kwan  menus  has  con- 
vinced me  that  the  objection  of  most  foreigners  to 
Chinese  cooking  is  largely  a  matter  of  prejudice, 
and  I  do  not  wonder  at  the  supreme  contempt 
which  educated  Chinese  have  for  the  "  foreign 
devils' "  food.  It  is  hard  to  find  a  dish  in  the 
Middle  Kingdom  that  is  not  based  upon  the  recipe 
of  some  sage  who  lived  centuries  ago  and  who  had 
a  hygienic  principle  in  mind  when  he  designed  it. 
Chinese  food  tends  much  more  to  vegetarianism 
than  does  ours.  Beef  is  never  eaten  except  by 
Mohammedans.    Mutton  and  pork  are  obtainable  in 

26 


PEKIN   TO    PAOTING 

some  towns,  but  the  only  form  of  meat  which  one 
is  sure  of  obtaining  is  fowl,  which  the  Chinese  know 
how  to  prepare  with  greater  delicacy  and  in  a  greater 
variety  of  ways  than  any  other  people  I  have  ever 
met  with.  Other  things  that  one  is  almost  sure  to 
find  at  every  well-regulated  meal  are  lotus-stems 
and  buds,  bamboo  sprouts,  bird's  nests,  pickled 
duck's  eggs,  and  shark's  fins.  Knives  and  forks  are 
a  profanation  of  food  so  historic  and  original,  and 
to  enjoy  it  one  must  accustom  himself  to  the  use  of 
chopsticks,  a  method  of  eating  not  at  all  difficult  to 
acquire. 

The  hours  of  travel,  as  prescribed  by  Chinese 
custom,  are  from  sunrise  to  sunset.  Shortly  after 
day-break  the  occupant  of  the  kung  kwan  is  awak- 
ened by  the  banchaiti,  who  makes  a  kow-tow,  and 
again  holds  up  the  mandarin's  card.  This  is  a  polite 
way  of  asking  for  his  pay.  Theoretically,  the  travel- 
ler is  the  guest  of  the  municipality,  and  is  allowed  to 
occupy  his  apartment  without  charge,  but  long  usage 
has  established  a  regular  rate  of  tip,  or  cumshaw,  as 
a  perquisite  to  the  banchaiti,  which  is  about  double 
the  cost  of  lodging  in  an  inn.  An  important  per- 
son in  every  traveller's  party  is  the  mafu.  His  work 
is  a  combination  of  the  duties  of  hostler  and 
guide.  It  is  his  province  to  see  that  the  animals 
are  fed  and  cared  for  and  that  the  saddle-girths  are 
properly  tightened  before  the  morning  start.  The 
mafu  usually  rides  at  least  one  hundred  yards  in  ad- 
vance of  the  shi  jang  of  the  guard,  and  points  out 

27 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

the  way.  About  five  miles  before  approaching  the 
town  which  contains  the  kung  kwan  for  the  night, 
the  mafu  kicks  his  pony  into  a  gallop  and  dashes 
on  ahead  to  inform  the  mandarin  of  the  traveller's 
approach,  so  that  everything  will  be  in  readiness  on 
his  arrival. 

Once  away  from  the  haunts  of  foreigners  the 
only  money  that  passes  current  in  China  is  taels.  A 
tael  is  merely  a  lump  of  bullion  silver  which  weighs 
one  Chinese  ounce.  It  is  paid  by  weight  and  not 
by  count.  To  accomplish  this  an  odd  little  pair  of 
scales  is  necessary,  which  is  carried  in  a  wooden  case 
especially  arranged  for  travellers.  But  the  perplex- 
ity of  taels  does  not  end  with  the  weighing  of  the 
irregular-shaped  lumps  of  silver.  In  scarcely  any 
two  provinces  is  the  price  of  silver  the  same,  and, 
consequently,  there  is  apt  to  be  considerable  differ- 
ence in  the  value  of  taels  in  travelling  a  distance 
of  only  one  hundred  miles.  In  some  places  the 
taels  are  made  from  purer  silver  than  in  others. 
The  scales  used  in  Pekin  are  graduated  differently 
from  those  in  vogue  in  the  Yangtse  valley.  To 
anyone  but  a  Chinaman,  the  money  of  his  country 
is  a  hopeless  puzzle.  But,  crude  and  clumsy  as  the 
system  is,  it  is  founded  upon  a  principle  which  came 
into  use  in  Europe  only  as  an  aftermath  of  the 
French  Revolution.  If  you  examine  the  little  ivory 
weighing-bar  of  every  pair  of  Chinese  scales  you 
will  see  that  it  is  marked  off  into  tenths  and  hun- 
dredths.    The  tael  is  divided  decimally.    Ever  since 


PEKIN   TO    PAOTING 

there  was  such  a  thing  as  money  in  China,  it  has 
been  based  upon  the  decimal  system.  The  oldest 
arithmetic  contains  an  exposition  of  decimals. 
That  arithmetic  was  published  in  the  Chou  dynasty, 
and  the  Chous  reigned  i  loo  years  before  Christ. 


29 


CHAPTER    III 
ACROSS    CHILI 

TO  the  south  and  west  of  Paotingfu  there 
stretches  a  gray  plain  which  embraces  nearly 
all  of  the  province  of  Chili  and  extends  to  the  foot- 
hills of  the  Shansi  Mountains.  Across  the  plain  zig- 
zag several  high-roads  connecting  the  larger  towns, 
much  as  railroads  do  in  the  United  States.  Old 
and  much  travelled  as  the  roads  are,  they  are  not 
maintained  by  the  government,  nor  are  they  public 
property,  as  on  the  western  side  of  the  world.  This 
is  not  true  of  roads  in  all  parts  of  the  empire,  but  it 
is  the  case  in  Chili.  A  road  in  that  province  is  sim- 
ply a  continuous  strip  of  land  appropriated  as  a 
thoroughfare  from  the  edges  of  the  fields.  The  use 
of  part  of  his  land  as  a  road  does  not  interfere  with 
the  owner's  possession  of  it.  He  has  still  to  pay 
taxes  on  it  as  part  of  his  property,  and  he  fights 
tenaciously  against  any  widening  or  improving  of 
the  thoroughfare  which  may  further  encroach  on 
his  farm.  Being  private  property,  it  is  the  business 
of  neither  the  general  government,  nor  of  the  dis- 
trict mandarin,  to  improve  the  road,  and  the  result 
is  that  it  becomes  merely  a  rut-worn  track  which 
rain  and  melting  snow  convert  into  a  mud-bog,  and 

30 


ACROSS   CHILI 

the  summer  sun  turns  into  furrows  of  dust.  The 
roads  were  in  the  height,  or  rather  depth,  of  the  dust 
period  when  we  left  Ting  in  the  middle  of  October. 
Although  a  brisk  autumn  wind  was  blowing  and 
the  temperature  was  quite  cool,  the  rays  of  the  sun 
were  fierce  in  their  intensity.  Nearly  all  the  men 
we  met  wore  peaked,  broad-brimmed,  straw  hats. 
Cases  of  sunstroke,  I  was  told,  are  known  in  Chili 
as  late  as  November.  The  appearance  of  the  coun- 
try for  miles  about  was  not  unlike  a  huge  vegetable 
garden  at  home.  Chili  farms  seldom  consist  of 
more  than  three  acres,  and  in  many  cases  they  are 
not  more  than  one  acre  in  extent.  The  naturally 
fertile  soil  is  constantly  manured  and  is  made  to 
produce  two  crops  a  year.  Every  foot  of  it  is 
under  cultivation.  The  climate  and  soil  are  similar 
to  Northern  Illinois.  Fields  of  cabbages,  onions, 
millet,  and  buckwheat  are  interspersed  with  patches 
of  cotton  and  tobacco,  which  are  raised  all  over 
China  in  a  temperate  climate  that  would  be  con- 
sidered prohibitive  in  other  parts  of  the  world. 
Every  quarter  of  a  mile  or  so  a  donkey  at  the  end 
of  a  long  pole  may  be  seen  walking  around  a  wind- 
lass. He  is  raising  water  from  a  well  by  a  chain- 
pump,  whence  it  is  discharged  into  the  furrows 
that  cross  the  fields  in  every  direction.  Some  of 
the  wells  are  very  deep  and  are  constructed  on  the 
Artesian  principle,  a  series  of  hollow  bamboo-rods 
taking  the  place  of  iron  pipe.  A  well-donkey  is  a 
thing  essentially  Chinese.      No  one  drives  him  or 

31 


THROUGH    HIDDEN   SHENSI 

apparently  takes  the  slightest  interest  in  him.  He 
wears  big,  straw  blinders  over  his  eyes,  which  prevent 
his  seeing  anything.  He  is  oblivious  of  his  sur- 
roundings. All  the  ordinary  aims  and  ambitions  of 
donkey  life  he  seems  to  have  forgotten.  Hour  after 
hour  he  walks  slowly  around  the  windlass,  only  a 
speck  on  the  flat  landscape,  only  a  cog  in  the  simple 
but  vast  system  of  agriculture  which  keeps  millions 
of  men  alive. 

The  milestones  of  Chili  are  square,  truncated 
pyramids  of  brick,  about  twenty  feet  in  height, 
placed  by  the  road-side  at  a  distance  of  five  li  apart. 
Guide-books  and  descriptions  of  China  usually  im- 
part the  information  that  a  li  is  equivalent  to  three- 
tenths  of  an  English  mile,  but  in  reality  a  li  can 
hardly  be  called  a  unit  of  distance  at  all.  It  is  more 
properly  a  measure  of  the  time  consumed  in  going 
from  one  place  to  another  over  a  level  road.  Across 
the  plain  which  we  were  traversing  the  five-li  mile- 
stones appeared  at  regular  intervals  of  one  mile  and 
a  half,  but,  in  the  mountains,  they  were  frequently 
separated  by  a  distance  of  not  more  than  half  a  mile, 
while  a  river  a  mile  wide  was  usually  estimated  as  ten 
li,  on  the  theory  that  it  took  three  times  as  long  to 
cross  it  in  a  ferry  as  it  would  to  ride  the  same  dis- 
tance on  land.  By  the  roadside  we  saw  numerous 
stone  monuments  consisting  of  two  upright  pillars, 
connected  at  the  top  by  a  slab  of  granite.  Along  the 
upper  edge  were  usually  stone-carved  dragons  and 
grotesque  figures  of  dogs  and  tigers.  An  inscription 

32 


ACROSS    CHILI 

on  the  slab  invariably  recited  that  it  was  erected  by 
some  Emperor  in  honour  of  a  widow  of  the  vicinity 
who  had  never  married  again.  According  to  Chinese 
standards,  this  loyalty  constitutes  the  highest  virtue 
of  which  a  woman  can  be  capable,  and  in  recognition 
of  it  a  fund  is  set  aside  every  year  from  the  imperial 
treasury  for  the  building  of  these  monuments  all 
over  the  empire,  although  I  saw  many  more  of  them 
in  Chili  than  anywhere  else.  In  this  part  of  China 
there  are  no  isolated  farm-houses,  as  in  America. 
Arable  land  is  too  precious  to  permit  of  its  be- 
ing covered  by  houses  or  barns.  As  a  means  of 
saving  every  square  foot,  the  population  herd  to- 
gether in  the  little  villages  which  occur  about  every 
half  hour  in  a  progress  across  the  plain. 

The  houses  are  usually  one  story  in  height,  and 
are  built  of  mud,  with  thatched  roofs,  and  windows 
covered  with  paper,  for  away  from  the  railroads  glass 
in  China  is  found  only  in  very  few  places.  Except 
in  the  evening  or  early  morning,  one  seldom  sees 
any  men  in  the  villages.  They  are  given  over  almost 
entirely  to  the  women  and  children,  while  the  male 
portion  of  the  population  is  at  work  in  the  surround- 
ing fields.  The  houses  are  built  close  together  along 
the  roadside.  Just  beyond  the  last  house  is  generally 
to  be  found  the  village  mill.  It  consists  of  a  round 
flat  stone  about  ten  feet  in  diameter,  elevated  about 
three  feet  from  the  ground.  On  it  the  corn  is 
placed,  and  a  heavy  stone  roller,  attached  to  a  spin- 
dle in  the  centre  of  the  stone  is  pushed  over  it.     In 

S3 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

other  parts  of  China  I  have  often  seen  the  rol- 
lers dragged  over  the  nether  stone  by  donkeys 
in  a  method  similar  to  a  well-windlass,  but  in 
Chili  the  roller  is  almost  invariably  propelled  by 
women. 

On  their  little,  bound,  crippled  feet  they  hobble 
round  and  round  the  millstone,  slowly  pushing  the 
creaking  roller  in  front  of  them.  It  looks  like  an 
exceedingly  painful  process,  but  the  women  laugh 
and  chatter,  as  they  hobble,  as  though  they  enjoyed 
it.  In  every  village  there  is  at  least  one  small 
temple  or  shrine.  It  is  usually  open  at  the  front, 
and  on  a  stage  at  the  rear  is  a  row  of  idols,  all 
painted  in  bright  colours  and  liberally  besmeared 
with  gilding.  The  temple  is  apt  to  be  the  best 
building  in  the  village  and  is  often  built  of  brick. 
For  a  Chinaman  any  sort  of  clay  soil  seems  pos- 
sible for  brick-making.  He  first  finds  a  part  of  his 
land  which  he  can  spare  from  cultivation.  As  this  is 
usually  a  difficult  matter  he  often  selects  a  place  by 
the  roadside.  There  he  digs  a  hole,  shovels  out 
the  clay,  mixes  it  with  straw  and  water,  and  then 
stamps  it  down  into  moulds.  He  piles  the  em- 
bryo brick  where  the  rays  of  the  sun  can  get  at 
them  and  goes  away.  In  the  course  of  a  week  or  so 
they  are  finished.  Like  the  clay  from  which  they  are 
baked,  the  bricks  are  a  dull  gray  in  color  and  are  in- 
clined at  first  to  be  damp,  but  the  permanency  of 
such  structuTcs  as  the  walls  of  some  of  the  older 
cities  proves  that  ultimately  they  become  quite  as 

34 


CHLLI    BRICK    MAKING. 


A    HALT    FOR    THE    NOON-DAY    MEAL. 


ACROSS   CHILI 

hard  and  impervious  to  the  elements  as  brick  made 
with  the  most  approved  machinery.  The  Pekinese 
have  a  proverb  which  says:  "The  first  year  after  a 
brick  house  is  built  let  your  enemy  live  in  it,  the 
second  year  your  friend,  and  the  third  year  occupy 
it  yourself." 

Our  first  stop  for  the  night  was  in  the  little 
town  of  Sinlo.  The  mandarin  of  the  place  came  to 
see  me  almost  as  soon  as  I  was  settled  in  my  kung 
kwan.  He  was  a  simple,  kindly  man  whose  ex- 
perience with  foreigners  had  apparently  been  very 
limited.  With  the  tea-cups  between  us,  he  at  once 
started  a  conversation  consisting  largely  of  ques- 
tions. "What  is  the  name  of  the  Emperor  of 
America  now  that  the  old  one  was  killed  ? "  he 
asked  through  the  medium  of  Wang's  interpreta- 
tion. When  I  replied  "Roosevelt,"  the  mandarin's 
sides  shook  and  the  corners  of  his  mouth  twitched 
with  suppressed  laughter.  "He  laugh,"  explained 
Wang,  "that  a  man  should  have  such  a  funny 
name."  My  visitor  wanted  to  know  how  old  the 
"  American  Emperor  "  was  and  what  were  his  yearly 
revenues.  He  asked  his  questions  with  the  utmost 
politeness,  but  in  his  manner  there  was  a  trace  of 
the  same  condescension  which  might  characterise 
the  conversation  of  a  prosperous,  eminently  respect- 
able American  with  a  Chinaman.  The  "stranger 
from  a-far"  was  to  be  treated  courteously,  but  he 
was  not  to  be  allowed  to  forget  that  he  was  a  bar- 
barian, and,  therefore,  could  never  hope  to  be  an 

35 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

equal.     The  Philistine  is  a  plant  indigenous  to  all 
lands  and  all  civilisations. 

A  day's  journey  from  Sinlo  brought  us  to 
Chengting,  a  fu,  or  prefecture-capital,  which  was  the 
headquarters  of  the  French  army  during  its  occupa- 
tion of  Chili.  The  kung  kwan,  where  we  spent  the 
night,  had  been  the  official  residence  of  the  com- 
mander of  the  invading  forces.  It  contained  a 
porcelain  lamp  that  would  not  light  and  a  clock 
which  could  not  be  made  to  keep  time,  but  the 
banchaiti  pointed  to  them  with  great  pride,  as  evi- 
dences that  Chengting  was  not  entirely  ignorant  of 
Western  civilisation.  Two  miles  from  Chengting  is 
the  Huto  River,  which  must  be  crossed  before  one 
can  strike  the  road  to  the  westward,  which  leads  to 
Tai  Yuan  and  Shansi.  We  made  our  way  along 
its  low,  sandy  banks  until  the  mafu  shouted  and 
pointed  to  a  party  of  three  men  with  their  nether 
garments  tied  in  bundles  on  their  heads,  wading 
across  the  stream.  This  indicated  the  point  where 
the  water  was  shallow  enough  to  enable  us  to  ford 
it,  and  then  we  accordingly  plunged  in,  horses,  cart, 
mules,  and  all,  touching  the  sandy  bottom  for  three- 
quarters  of  a  mile.  Fording  rivers  is  one  of  the 
necessities  of  travel  in  China,  and  to  do  it  grace- 
fully, without  wetting  one's  feet  or  undue  splashing, 
is  an  art  which,  like  sleeping  on  brick-beds,  has  to 
be  acquired  by  practice.  Ferries  are  used  on  the 
broader  and  deeper  rivers,  but  the  only  method 
of  crossing  the  great  majority  of   smaller  streams 

36 


ACROSS    CHILI 

is  by  wading.  Tiie  ponies  and  mules  do  not  seem 
to  mind  the  process  in  the  least,  and  the  only 
difficulty  is  to  prevent  them  from  stopping  to  drink 
in  mid-stream.  Without  the  slightest  warning,  a 
pony  will  pause  suddenly,  just  where  the  current  is 
strongest,  and,  dropping  his  head,  will  begin  taking 
long  gulps  of  the  muddy  water.  The  operation  is 
performed  so  quickly  that,  if  his  rider  is  not  careful, 
he  will  follow  the  line  of  the  pony's  arched  neck 
into  the  stream. 

Westward  from  the  fords  of  the  Huto,  the  road 
is  some  thirty  feet  below  the  level  of  the  plain.  The 
effect  of  riding  over  a  highway  of  this  kind  is  the 
same  as  passing  through  a  canon.  On  either  side 
rise  precipitous,  gray  cliffs  of  hard  clay,  with  just  a 
patch  of  the  blue,  brassy  sky  visible  between  them. 
These  ravines  are  not  the  result  of  natural  causes, 
but  are  due  to  ages  of  incessant  travel.  Centuries 
of  wagon-ruts  in  the  same  path  have  worn  them  to 
their  present  depth.  No  one  ever  has  improved  the 
roads  or  has  changed  their  direction  until,  from  sheer 
wear,  they  have  sunk  to  the  level  at  which  one  finds 
them  to-day. 

It  has  been  pointed  out  by  some  critics  of 
China  that  it  possesses  few  monuments  of  its  great- 
ness ;  that  it  has  no  marble  temples  or  jewelled 
palaces.  But  China  needs  none.  Such  furrows 
as  the  sunken  roads  on  the  face  of  the  land  itself 
are  monuments  of  a  continuous  civilisation  almost 
as  old  as  the  race. 

37 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

It  was  in  passing  through  these  rut-worn  ravines 
that  the  philosophy  of  Chili  carts  first  became  ap- 
parent. As  far  as  the  mountains  of  Shansi,  the 
carts  are  all  built  on  the  same  model  as  in  Pekin. 
They  are  heavy  and  springless  and  have  only  two 
wheels.  From  the  centres  of  the  hubs  the  axles 
protrude  a  distance  of  six  or  eight  inches.  In  passing 
other  vehicles  these  extensions  are  very  inconvenient, 
but  when,  as  in  the  sunken  roads,  one  side  of  the 
way  is  much  higher  than  the  other,  and  the  whole 
weight  of  the  cart  and  its  contents  often  rests  on 
one  wheel  for  a  mile  or  more  at  a  time,  it  is  liable 
at  any  moment  to  upset  and  fall  on  its  side.  In 
this  event,  under  ordinary  conditions,  the  lower 
wheel  might  buckle  under  the  cart  and  break.  But 
such  a  catastrophe  is  prevented  by  the  axle-exten- 
sion, which  receives  the  force  of  the  fall  and  saves 
the  w^heel.  From  Hwuyluh  we  were  in  the  hill- 
country.  The  dust  of  the  plain  of  Chili  was  left 
behind.  In  its  place  was  a  rocky,  narrow  trail  that 
wound  in  and  out  among  the  mountains.  Hwuyluh 
is  the  centre  of  the  mining  industry  of  North  China. 

Probably  no  one  knows  what  the  mineral  re- 
sources of  China  are,  but  some  idea  of  them  can  be 
obtained  from  the  thousands  of  freshly  moulded  iron 
pots  and  kettles  that  come  into  Hwuyluh  from  the 
surrounding  country.  Progress  up  some  of  the  hill- 
roads  is  really  difficult  because  of  the  long  proces- 
sions of  men  and  boys  with  crates  filled  with  these 
products  of  the  iron  mines  swung  from  rods  on  their 

38 


ACROSS   CHILI 

shoulders.  The  kettles  are  moulded  in  only  a  very 
few  shapes,  after  models  that  have  been  in  vogue  for 
ages,  but  the  vast  quantities  of  them  that  are  shipped 
every  day  from  Hwuyluh  would  indicate  that  the  old 
mines  from  which  they  come  must  be  almost  exhaust- 
less.  Long  trains  of  donkeys  are  frequently  met 
with,  each  with  two  blocks  of  coal  balanced  on  his 
pack-saddle.  The  coal  is  the  finest  kind  of  anthra- 
cite, and  all  of  it  has  to  be  sawed  into  these  blocks 
for  transportation.  The  labor  of  sawing  the  coal 
and  the  accompanying  waste  must  be  enormous. 
Yet  this  same  coal  sells  in  Pekin  at  prices  about 
equal  to  twelve  American  dollars  per  ton.  Coal  is 
burned  as  fuel  in  many  parts  of  Northern  Shansi, 
and  I  was  told  (although  I  saw  nothing  of  the  kind 
myself)  that  in  many  places  all  that  a  farmer  has  to 
do  to  obtain  it  is  to  dig  it  out  of  a  hillside  on  his 
land. 

From  Hwuyluh  to  Tai  Yuan  carts  almost  cease 
to  be  a  means  of  conveyance.  They  are  met  with 
only  at  very  rare  intervals,  drawn  by  three  or  four 
struggling  mules.  The  ordinary  method  of  travel 
is  on  the  backs  of  ponies  or  donkeys.  Chinese 
ponies  are  never  broken,  in  the  American  sense  of 
the  word.  It  is  always  to  be  expected  that  on  first 
getting  astride  of  a  pony  in  the  morning  he  will 
kick  and  buck,  and,  perhaps,  try  to  run  away.  This 
manoeuvre  does  not  worry  the  average  Chinaman  in 
the  slightest ;  he  merely  gives  the  pony  free  rein  and 
lets  him  run.    In  the  course  of  half  an  hour  or  so  he 

39 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

finds  the  exertion  of  running  away  somewhat  ex- 
hausting, and  he  then  settles  down  to  his  normal  gait, 
which  is  usually  a  hard,  jolting  trot,  although  about 
one  pony  in  every  ten  is  capable  of  a  single-foot. 
Having  once  struck  his  gait,  the  pony  goes  ahead  like 
a  little  machine.  He  is  always  ridden  with  a  loose 
rein.  Yet,  he  keeps  to  the  road,  and  never  misses 
his  footing.  Up  hill  and  down — across  plains  and 
through  mountain-trails,  he  keeps  up  the  same  mo- 
notonous hard  trot.  When  he  comes  to  a  river  he 
never  pauses  an  instant,  but  plunges  in,  fording  it  if 
possible,  swimming  if  necessary.  And  all  this,  with  no 
food  all  the  year  round  but  chopped  corn-stalks,  and 
without  ever  experiencing  the  refining  influence  of 
brush  or  currycomb.  At  the  end  of  the  day's  jour- 
ney the  mafu  walks  him  up  and  down  the  court- 
yard for  half  an  hour  as  an  antidote  for  stiffness  of  the 
knees.  Then  the  saddle  is  removed,  and  he  is  allowed 
to  roll  in  the  dust  of  the  road  for  a  few  minutes. 
After  that,  he  is  tied  to  a  manger  under  a  shed, 
and  the  next  morning  is  ready  for  another  thirty 
miles. 

As  the  way  wound  among  the  hills  it  began  to 
develop  into  the  nearest  approach  to  a  road,  in  our 
sense  of  the  word,  that  I  had  yet  seen  in  China. 

The  roads  for  miles  near  Hwuyluh  are  paved 
with  square  blocks  of  granite.  Their  exposed  sur- 
faces are  about  the  size  of  flag-stones  in  a  Broadway 
sidewalk,  but  they  are  from  two  to  two-and-a-half 
feet  in  thickness.     How  thousands  of  these  blocks 

40 


A    GRAXITK    men  WAY, 


ACROSS   CHILI 

were  ever  placed  on  the  steep  hillside  without  steam- 
hoisting  machinery  is  one  of  the  many  mysteries  of 
things  in  the  interior  of  China  which  have  yet  to  be 
explained.  The  stones  are  in  some  places  sadly  in 
need  of  repair,  and  are  deeply  grooved  and  indented 
by  wheel- ruts.  No  one  in  that  part  of  the  country 
to-day  can  remember  when  the  ordinary  method  of 
travel  was  other  than  on  the  backs  of  animals.  Ap- 
parently, not  enough  carts  pass  over  the  road  in  the 
course  of  an  entire  year  to  make  the  slightest  im- 
pression on  the  granite  surfaces.  Yet  there  the  ruts 
are  often  from  five  to  eight  inches  deep,  seemingly 
a  survival  of  a  time  long  passed  in  Chinese  history, 
when  the  road  over  which  we  were  travelling  was 
the  great  highway  of  the  Empire,  when  it  was 
crowded  with  the  commerce  that  centred  in  the 
capital  in  Shensi. 

The  last  stop  in  Chili  was  at  Tsingting,  a  pretty 
little  town  divided  into  two  parts  by  a  tributary  of 
the  Huto.  Across  the  river  is  what  was  once  a 
huge  bridge,  built  of  stone.  Some  hundred  and  fifty 
years  ago  a  spring  freshet  carried  away  one  of  the 
spans.  It  has  never  been  replaced,  and  the  portion 
of  the  brids^e  still  standing:  is  now  used  onlv  as  a 
sort  of  promenade  by  the  citizens  of  the  town.  The 
generations  of  men  who  have  had  occasion  to  pass 
through  Tsingting,  since  the  disappearance  of  the 
span  have  all  been  compelled  to  ford  the  river  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  below  the  bridge.  The  Chinese  are 
quite  as  disinclined  to  repair  as  they  are  to  build  any- 

41 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

thing  new.  They  have  a  sort  of  fatalist  belief,  that  if 
heaven  had  intended  them  to  have  a  bridge,  the 
freshet  would  not  have  come  to  destroy  it.  The  catas- 
trophe proved  that  bridges  were  not  for  Tsingting. 
The  mandarin  of  the  town  was  noted  through  all 
the  country  roundabout  for  his  exceptional  integrity 
and  ability.  When  I  went  to  see  him,  I  found  him 
standing  at  the  door  of  his  residence.  He  received 
me  in  a  delightfully  informal  way  and  ordered  a 
feast  brought  in  as  we  talked.  The  object  of  my 
visit  was  only  to  procure  two  additional  donkeys  for 
the  next  day's  journey,  but  our  conversation  soon 
expanded  into  a  general  discussion  of  the  present 
Chinese  situation.  "Whether  we  like  foreigners 
or  not,"  said  my  host,  "  China  must  imitate  some 
European  methods,  if  she  wishes  to  maintain  her 
dignity  and  self-respect ;  but,"  he  added,  "I  think 
there  are  some  things  in  which  foreign  nations 
might  imitate  us,  and  be  better  for  doing  so,"  and 
the  mandarin  smiled  and  cracked  a  watermelon- 
seed  between  his  teeth.  "  He  is  clever  man," 
Wang  observed,  "he  understand  the  mandarin 
business."  It  was  dark  when  we  left  his  residence, 
and  he  insisted  on  giving  us  two  men  with  paper 
lanterns  to  walk  in  front  of  our  horses'  heads  and 
show  us  to  the  ford.  Behind  us  followed  more 
than  a  hundred  of  the  townspeople,  who  stared  at 
us  curiously,  and  tried  to  listen  to  snatches  of  my 
conversation  in  English  with  Wang.  Whenever 
they  succeeded  in  catching  a  sentence  or  two,  we 

42 


ACROSS   CHILI 

could  hear  a  half-suppressed  ripple  of  laughter  pass 
over  the  crowd  behind  us.  To  many  of  them  it 
was  their  first  experience  of  any  language  more 
foreign  than  Manchu. 


43 


CHAPTER    IV 
BEYOND    THE   WALL    OF   SHANSI 

A  STONE  tablet  stands  on  a  hillside  five  miles 
beyond  Tsingting.  Large  characters  carved  in 
the  stone  record  the  fact  that  it  marks  the  boundary 
between  Chili  and  Shansi.  Strewn  along  the  tops 
of  the  neighbouring  mountains  are  heaps  of  mouldy 
brick.  These,  the  mafu  explains,  are  "  the  great 
wall."  With  one's  mind  filled  with  impressions  of 
a  great  wall  towering  far  above  the  surrounding 
country,  with  a  space  on  the  top  wide  enough  for 
three  chariots  to  ride  abreast,  these  brick  piles  are 
a  sad  disappointment.  So  far  as  their  usefulness  is 
concerned  in  determining  the  form  or  character  of 
the  wall  itself,  they  might  just  as  well  be  the  debris 
of  a  brick-yard  as  a  survival  of  China's  greatest 
monument.  But  they  do  prove  that  Mung-tien,  the 
general  who  superintended  the  building  of  the  wall 
for  Shih  Hwang-ti,  two  hundred  years  before  the 
Christian  era,  clearly  understood  the  strategic  ad- 
vantage of  a  hilltop  as  a  point  of  defence  against  an 
attacking  foe.  The  brick-heaps  follow  the  ridge  of 
the  hills  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach  to  the  north  and 
south.  The  direction  of  this  section  of  the  great 
wall  along  the  eastern  border  of  Shansi  is  almost  at 

44 


BEYOND    THE    WALL    OF    SHANSI 

right  angles  with  the  main  line,  which  runs  westward 
from  Shan-hai-kuan,  on  the  Gulf  of  Chili,  almost 
to  the  limits  of  Kansun  Province.  The  south- 
ern branch  of  the  wall  shows  the  extent  of  the 
Chinese  Empire  at  the  time  it  was  built.  The  incur- 
sions of  the  Tartars  were  to  be  dreaded  not  only 
from  the  north,  but  also  from  the  eastern  plain,  now 
included  in  Chili  Province.  When  Munor-tien  was 
superintending  the  building  of  the  wall,  the  Black- 
Haired  People  were  still  centred  around  the  valley 
of  the  Yellow  River  and  its  tributaries.  The  road 
into  Shansi  makes  a  detour  up  the  side  of  a  hill  be- 
fore it  turns  sharp  to  the  westward  and  passes  be- 
tween the  brick-piles.  The  object  of  this  was  ap- 
parently to  make  approach  to  the  wall  as  difficult 
as  possible  for  an  enemy.  The  bastion-towers  of 
what  was  once  a  gate  across  the  stone-paved  road- 
way are  still  visible. 

Just  before  we  reached  the  wall  we  were  met  by 
a  party  of  six  soldiers,  in  whose  manner  and  general 
appearance  there  w^as  a  touch  of  something  that  was 
foreign  and  not  entirely  Chinese.  Instead  of  the 
usual  crimson  and  white  blouses,  they  wore  com- 
plete uniforms  of  blue  khaki,  which  fitted  better 
and  were  more  trim  than  any  I  had  previously  seen 
in  China.  Mauser  rifles  were  swung  over  their 
shoulders,  and  they  wore  their  cartridge-belts  with  a 
jauntiness  that  would  have  done  credit  to  any  army 
in  the  world.  While  I  was  wondering  who  this  new 
type  of  soldier  might  be,  the  shi  jang,  who  was  dis- 

45 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

tinguished  by  a  sword,  advanced  and  touched  his 
hand  to  his  turban.  This  was  in  itself  a  peculiar 
gesture  for  a  Chinaman,  because  the  average  soldier 
of  the  Empire  salutes  only  by  clasping  his  hands  in 
front  of  his  face  and  bowing.  The  shi  jang  pointed 
to  a  white  badge  on  his  right  arm,  on  which  were  the 
words,  in  English,  "  Shansi  Police."  He  explained 
that  his  party  had  been  sent  to  meet  us  and  to 
escort  us  to  Tai  Yuan.  I  thanked  him  and  handed 
him  a  cigarette,  which  he  looked  at  rather  suspi- 
ciously before  lighting  with  his  striking-flint.  Then 
he  gave  a  short  "  Hi "  to  his  men.  They  sprang  on 
their  ponies,  and  our  journey  through  Shansi  was 
begun.  The  mounted  police-force  of  Shansi  is  the 
most  newly  foreign  thing  in  the  interior  of  China 
to-day,  and  is  the  only  real  sign  of  anything  like  an 
inclination  toward  Western  methods  that  I  met  with 
anywhere  in  the  country. 

Because  of  its  murders  of  missionaries,  old 
Shansi  came  very  near  being  invaded  and  "pun- 
ished "  by  the  allied  armies.  The  Germans  sent  a 
column  as  far  as  the  great  wall,  and  threatened  all 
sorts  of  things  if  the  province  did  not  at  once  come 
to  terms.  The  panic-stricken  provincial  govern- 
ment, not  only  agreed  to  pay  all  the  missionary  in- 
demnities demanded,  but,  in  addition,  introduced 
several  innovations  for  the  purpose  of  propitiating 
the  "  strangers  from  afar,"  and  chief  among  these 
was  the  Shansi  police.  It  is  their  especial  duty  to 
guard  the  life  and  property  of  all  foreigners  who 

46 


BEYOND   THE   WALL   OF   SHANSI 

may  chance  to  pass  through  the  province.  With  the 
police  a  wen  shao  is  not  a  necessary  credential.  All 
that  one  need  have  in  travelling  to  Tai  Yuan  is  the 
passport  of  his  own  government.  This  the  shi  jang 
examines  and  approves,  then  jumps  on  his  pony, 
and  gives  his  men  the  word  to  follow.  In  towns 
along  the  road,  at  a  distance  of  thirty  or  forty  miles 
apart,  one  finds  a  building  labelled,  curiously  enough 
in  English,  "Police-station."  Into  this  the  police- 
escort  disappear,  to  be  replaced  by  another  relay  of 
the  same  number,  who  accompany  the  traveller  over 
the  next  stage  of  the  journey.  The  system  is  re- 
markably perfect  and  well-organised  when  one  con- 
siders the  short  time  it  has  been  in  operation  and 
how  contrary  it  is  to  the  ordinary,  undisciplined 
methods  of  Chinese  soldiery.  To  be  sure,  the 
breeches  of  their  rifles  show  that  the  date  of  their 
manufacture  was  1876,  and  it  is  exceptional  for  a 
Shansi  policeman  to  possess  more  than  three  car- 
tridges at  a  time ;  but  these  are  minor  details,  and  the 
adaptability,  discipline,  and  easy  swing  of  the  newly 
organised  force  go  to  show  what  the  Chinese  could 
do  as  soldiers  if  properly  drilled  and  armed.  In 
addition  to  their  other  duties,  the  Shansi  police  carry 
the  mail  across  the  mountains  from  the  newly 
established  post-office  in  Tai  Yuan.  Swinging 
across  the  pommels  of  their  saddles  are  the  raw- 
hide mail-sacks  of  the  Imperial  postal-service.  From 
what  I  saw  of  their  system  of  handling  the  mail  I 
am   inclined    to   believe   that   the   average    Shansi 

47 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

policeman  has  only  a  very  indefinite  idea  of  what  a 
letter  is.  He  often  holds  the  sealed  mail-bag  up 
to  the  light  and  tries  to  look  through  it.  He  uses  it 
as  a  blanket  at  night  and  as  a  cushion  in  the  day; 
but  he  knows  that  if  one  of  the  mysterious  pouches 
should  be  lost  or  stolen,  he  would  "  lose  his  face  " 
forever,  and  the  result  is  that  the  Shansi  mail  now 
reaches  Pekin  twice  a  week  with  unfailing  regularity. 
A  Shansi  policeman  is  just  about  the  "best  fellow" 
to  be  met  with  anywhere  in  China.  He  has  all 
of  the  frankness  and  light-hearted  gaiety  which 
distinguish  a  true  soldier  the  world  over.  He 
laughs  merrily  at  times,  an  unusual  act  for  a  China- 
man. His  long  pipe  and  tobacco-pouch  are  always 
tied  to  his  cartridge-belt,  and  nothing  seems  to 
please  him  so  much  as  to  light  the  foreigner's 
pipe  with  a  spark  from  his  own  lighting-flint.  He 
is  a  moving  encyclopedia  of  information  about 
the  country  over  which  he  rides.  He  knows  all  the 
legends  about  the  heroes  and  spirits  and  dragons 
who  have  at  different  times  played  a  part  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  mountains.  He  has  picturesque  inci- 
dents to  relate  of  the  roadside-temples,  and  he  can 
give  you  the  biographies  of  nearly  all  the  dead 
mandarins  whose  stone  tablets  adorn  the  hills. 

Once  across  the  great  wall,  the  traveller  begins 
to  realise  the  difference  between  old  and  new  China. 

Shansi  and  Chili  differ  quite  as  much  from  each 
other  as  do  Massachusetts  and  Kansas.  One  of  the 
first-noticed    points    of    dissimilarity   is    the    much 

48 


BEYOND    THE   WALL   OF    SHANSI 

greater  number  of  monuments  and  massive  temples 
in  Shansi  than  in  the  Chili  plain.  Spanning  the 
road  at  frequent  intervals  on  the  way  to  Tai  Yuan 
are  huge,  square  archways,  built  of  stone.  They 
are  devoid  of  the  carvings  and  bizarre  ornamenta- 
tions which  characterise  the  architectural  style  of 
the  Ming  and  Ts'ing  dynasties.  They  belong  to 
a  much  older  period,  and  in  their  outlines  curves  are 
noticeably  lacking.  Their  builders  either  possessed 
no  knowledge  of  curves  or  else  purposely  wished  to 
avoid  them.  The  pillars  supporting  the  arches  are 
always  square  and  rest  upon  four-cornered  pedestals. 
Along  the  roads,  too,  are  gray-stone  tablets, 
commemorative  of  men  and  women  who  died  long 
ago.  The  tablets  frequently  rest  on  the  backs  of 
stone  tortoises,  carved  with  a  remarkable  fidelity  to 
life.  In  Chinese  mythology  the  tortoise  is  given  a 
very  high  place.  From  the  markings  of  its  shell  are 
supposed  to  have  come  the  first  suggestion  of  char- 
acter-writing. Because  of  the  great  age  to  which  a 
tortoise  lives,  it  is  also  looked  upon  as  an  emblem  of 
immortality.  Some  of  the  tablets  are  erected  to  the 
memory  of  "good  mandarins,"  and  the  inscriptions 
tell  how  the  dead  official  "improved  the  roads"  of 
his  shen,  or  perhaps  "  gave  a  thousand  taels  to  the 
poor."  Other  tablets  are  tributes  of  grateful  pupils 
to  dead  teachers  who  first  expounded  to  them 
Confucian  wisdom.  A  few  are  in  honour  of  men  in 
very  humble  walks  of  life,  but  whose  virtues  made  a 
great  impression  upon  their  fellow-townsmen.    They 

49 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

are  interesting  commentaries  on  Chinese  standards 
of  goodness.  Their  inscriptions  read  like  this :  "He 
lived  in  poverty  all  his  life  in  order  to  provide  for 
his  father,"  or  a  tablet  to  a  woman  may  say,  "  She 
was  obedient  to  her  husband,  and  when  he  died, 
mourned  for  him  all  the  rest  of  her  life."  In  front 
of  some  of  the  tablets  are  upright  stone  bars,  which 
give  them  something  of  the  appearance  of  animals' 
cages.  In  the  space  between  the  stone  slab  and 
the  bars,  the  spirit  of  the  dead  man  is  supposed,  in 
an  indefinite  way,  to  make  its  headquarters,  and  for 
this  reason  it  is  not  at  all  unusual  to  find  bowls  of 
rice  and  other  food  placed  there  by  pious  relatives 
in  order  to  satisfy  the  hunger  of  the  departed  spirit. 
In  passing  a  grove  soon  after  entering  Shansi, 
I  noticed  tied  to  the  branches  of  one  of  the  trees  a 
number  of  Httle  red  streamers,  inscribed  with  char- 
acters. This  was  my  first  glimpse  of  one  of  the  "pray- 
ing-trees "  that  are  found  in  hundreds  of  places  scat- 
tered all  over  Northwestern  China.  They  are  believed 
to  be  the  dwelling-places  of  spirits  who  possess  the 
power  of  healing  diseases  and  of  bringing  troubles 
to  a  happy  termination.  The  trees  are  devoutly  wor- 
shipped, and  everyone  who  has  been  benefited  by 
them  records  the  fact  by  hanging  a  piece  of  red  cloth 
on  the  boughs,  where  it  serves  much  the  same  pur- 
pose as  a  patent-medicine  testimonial  might  on  our 
side  of  the  world  in  calling  attention  to  the  wonder- 
ful properties  the  tree  possesses,  and  in  inducing 
others  to  worship  its  spirit.     The  reason  why  popu- 

50 


BEYOND   THE   WALL   OF   SHANSI 

lar  belief  selects  certain  trees  as  dwelling-places  of 
spirits,  to  the  exclusion  of  others,  is  a  question  which 
I  have  never  heard  satisfactorily  explained.  Out  of 
a  grove  of  twenty  or  thirty  trees,  all  of  about  the 
same  age  and  size,  one  only  will  be  decorated  with 
red  rags  in  honour  of  its  curative  powers.  Whether 
or  not  a  sick  Chinaman  experiments  with  every  tree 
he  may  come  across  until  he  finds  one  that  will  heal 
him  of  his  infirmity,  I  do  not  know,  but  certain  it  is 
that  the  "praying-trees"  seem  to  be  selected  entirely 
at  random,  and  without  any  signs  of  spirit-habitation 
that  are  visible  to  the  eyes  of  the  "  outer  barbarian." 
The  rugged  beauty  of  the  mountains  is  in  some 
degree  obscured  by  the  terraces  which  cover  them 
from  base  to  summit.  The  earth  of  the  terraces  is 
held  in  place  by  stone  walls,  about  four  feet  high, 
which  extend  along  the  sides  of  the  mountain. 
The  stones  of  which  the  terrace-walls  are  built 
are  all  loose  boulders  which  can  have  been  placed 
in  their  present  position  only  with  great  labour  and 
infinite  patience.  Every  little  patch  of  ground  be- 
tween the  mountain-side  and  the  edge  of  the  wall  is 
under  cultivation,  usually  with  wheat  or  some  other 
variety  of  grain,  but  so  far  as  human  beings  were 
concerned,  the  mountain-terraces,  when  I  saw  them, 
were  deserted.  Men  and  women  were  nowhere  to 
be  seen.  Their  absence  was  explained  to  me  as 
due  to  the  fact  that  the  spring  crop  had  been 
planted  only  a  short  time  before  and  that,  conse- 
quently, at  that  time  required  but  little  attention. 

51 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

Villages  along  the  road  are  as  frequent  as  in 
Chili,  but  their  method  of  construction  is  often  dif- 
erent.  In  Shansi  the  houses  are  frequently  built  of 
rough  stone,  one  above  the  other,  against  the  side  of 
a  hill.  A  dwelling-place  for  an  entire  community  of 
several  hundred  will  frequently  not  cover  more  than 
a  few  acres  of  ground.  From  a  distance  a  village  of 
this  kind  has  the  appearance  of  one  large  building, 
not  unlike  a  Zuni  Indian  pueblo  in  New  Mexico. 
Each  house  has  at  least  two  rooms ;  one  serves  as  a 
general  living  and  sleeping  apartment,  while  the 
other  is  used  as  a  store-room  for  the  stock  of  food  on 
which  the  family  subsist  during  the  winter.  But 
no  matter  how  much  a  village  may  be  concentrated 
in  an  effort  to  economise  land  for  purposes  of  culti- 
vation, it  is  always  sure  to  have  across  the  road,  as 
one  approaches  it  from  either  side,  a  high,  stone 
wall  with  a  gateway  in  the  centre.  On  the  wall  is 
usually  painted  in  gay  colours  a  grotesque  figure  of  a 
dragon  or  a  tiger.  The  wall  and  the  picture  are  for 
the  purpose  of  frightening  away  evil  spirits  who 
might  be  inclined  to  disturb  the  peace  of  the  village. 
In  the  course  of  every  twenty-four  hours,  in  the 
Shansi  Mountains,  one  is  sure  to  pass  two  or  more 
towns  of  considerable  importance.  The  amount  of 
business  transacted  in  them  and  the  quantity  of  the 
produce  of  the  country  offered  for  sale  in  their 
markets  would  indicate  that  the  struggle  of  wrest- 
ing a  livelihood  from  the  rocky,  unyielding  soil  is 
more  successful  than  is  at  first  apparent. 

52 


BEYOND    THE   WALL   OF    SHANSI 

One  of  the  most  prosperous  of  these  towns 
is  Ping  Ting,  about  two  days'  journey  beyond  the 
great  wall.  Beside  an  imposing-looking  temple 
was  a  large  market,  where  more  than  fifty  venders 
of  vegetables  were  squatted  on  the  ground  shout- 
ing their  wares  to  passers-by.  In  a  few  of  their 
baskets  I  found  white  potatoes,  which  proved  to 
be  as  large  and  mealy  as  though  raised  in  Ireland 
or  America.  They  are  not  indigenous  to  the  soil 
of  the  country  and  are  very  hard  to  obtain  outside 
of  the  foreign  settlements.  The  white  potato  was, 
it  is  said,  introduced  into  China  about  fifty  years 
ago  by  Jesuit  missionaries. 

For  an  hour  or  two  after  leaving  Ping  Ting,  the 
steep  road  wound  up  the  side  of  a  mountain.  As 
we  approached  the  summit,  we  were  confronted  by 
a  stone  wall,  some  twenty  feet  high,  built  across  the 
road,  with  a  shrine  on  the  top  and  an  archway  in 
the  centre  only  wide  enough  to  permit  of  two 
mules  passing  each  other  beneath  it.  The  road 
had  sunk  at  this  point  to  a  depth  of  more  than  five 
feet,  so  that  the  wall  at  first  glance  seemed  only  an 
additional  obstacle  to  the  highway,  and  I  wondered 
what  motive  had  prompted  its  builders  to  place  it 
in  such  an  awkward  position.  But  the  reason 
became  apparent  as  we  passed  through  the  archway 
and  emerged  on  the  other  side. 

Far,  far  below  us  was  a  gray,  furrowed  plain, 
almost  circular  in  shape  ;  rising  from  it,  up  and  up 
almost  to  the  hoofs  of  our  horses,  in  regularity  and 

53 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

harmony,  were  terraces  that  completely  encircled 
the  plain  and  looked  down  upon  it  like  the  seats  of 
some  colossal  amphitheatre.  Beyond,  to  the  north 
and  west,  were  other  and  higher  mountains,  whose 
long,  purple  shadows  fell  slanting  across  the  terraces 
as  the  sun  began  to  descend  from  a  cloudless  sky  to 
meet  their  snow-capped  summits.  Yet  in  all  the 
vast  panorama,  extending  over  fifteen  miles,  there 
was  only  one  point  of  vantage  where  the  eye  of 
the  beholder  could  grasp  it  all ;  only  one  where  the 
elements  of  mountain  and  terrace  and  plain  re- 
tained their  due  proportions  in  the  picture,  and  at 
that  point  the  wall  spanned  the  road.  A  little 
further  down  the  mountain-side  only  a  portion  of 
the  terraces  would  have  been  visible.  Looked  at 
from  a  greater  height,  the  plain  would  have  appeared 
insignificant,  but  from  the  arched  gateway  the  sym- 
phony was  perfect. 

"The  stone-wall  is  a  curtain,"  the  shi  jang  said, 
as  he  pointed  back  to  it  with  his  riding-whip. 
Several  centuries  ago  some  man  realised  the  love- 
liness of  the  scene  commanded  by  that  particular 
mountain-crest.  He  did  not  wish  future  generations 
of  men,  who  would  toil  up  and  down  that  steep 
road,  to  miss  the  superb  unity  of  the  natural  amphi- 
theatre that  lay  spread  out  at  their  feet.  So  he  de- 
signed a  stone-curtain,  narrowly  divided  in  the 
centre,  where,  while  they  paused  and  wondered  for 
a  little,  its  glories  would  burst  upon  them.  But 
this  wall-builder,  this  man  possessed  to  such  an  ex- 

54 


A   STONE    CURTAIN. 


Till':  sci:xl:  rr  disclosed. 


BEYOND   THE   WALL   OF   SHANSI 

ceptional  degree  with  a  sense  of  the  beauty  of  the 
world  in  which  he  lived,  was  not  a  "white  man." 
He  wore  a  queue ;  he  was  a  "  heathen  ; "  he  was  a 
Chinaman. 


55 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  BLIGHT  ON  THE  LAND 

NEARLY  all  of  the  chain  of  villages  that  line 
the  road  through  the  Shansi  Mountains  from 
the  great  wall  to  Tai  Yuan,  possess  certain  common 
characteristics.  Few  villages  have  a  population  of 
more  than  three  hundred.  They  are  as  isolated  and 
as  lonely,  perhaps,  as  any  communities  of  the  same 
number  of  human  beings  anywhere  on  earth.  The 
villagers  have  no  luxuries,  and  few  comforts,  yet  they 
are  happy  and  contented,  and  among  them  are  no 
paupers.  In  Chinese  villages  there  are  no  "  poverty 
alleys."  Perhaps  no  one  in  the  entire  community 
makes  more  than  twenty-five  American  cents  a  day, 
but  that  sum  is  enough  to  clothe  him  and  his  fam- 
ily, and  enable  him  to  fill  the  store-room  of  his  stone 
or  mud  house  with  enough  corn-meal  and  millet  for 
the  needs  of  the  long,  cold  winter.  The  villagers 
are  very  dirty,  and  they  defy  almost  every  known 
sanitary  law,  but  they  succeed  in  living  and  in 
maintaining  an  equality  of  conditions  which  pre- 
vents both  the  ambitions  and  the  discontent  to 
which  we  are  accustomed  in  western  civilisation. 

I  have  said  nearly  all  the  villages,  because  in 
the  course  of  every  twenty-four  hours,  in  a  progress 

56 


THE    BLIGHT    ON   THE    LAND 

through  Shansi  Mountains,  one  is  almost  sure  to  find 
at  least  one  village  whose  conditions,  no  matter  by 
what  standards  they  might  be  measured,  could  never 
be  called  happy  or  fortunate.  Even  from  a  distance 
the  diiference  between  the  sad  village  and  the  rest 
is  very  marked.  The  walls  at  the  entrance  to  it  are 
crumbling  as  though  the  inhabitants  had  ceased  to 
take  any  interest  in  spirits,  good  or  evil.  The  roofs 
of  the  houses  are  dilapidated  and  full  of  holes.  A 
nearer  approach  reveals  windows  from  which  the 
paper  panes  are  missing  and  doors  supported  by  only 
one  hinge.  No  one  is  selling  vegetables  in  the  road, 
and  the  one  or  two  shops  which  the  village  possessed 
are  closed.  In  the  shadow  of  the  houses  a  few  men 
and  women  are  lying  or  squatting — apparently  in  a 
stupor.  Their  faces  are  drawn  and  leathery,  their 
eyes  glazed  and  dull.  Their  clothes  are  masses  of 
rags,  and,  what  is  most  hopeless  of  all,  the  men  have 
neglected  to  braid  their  queues ;  their  hair  is  dis- 
hevelled and  matted.  Even  some  of  the  babies  the 
women  carry  in  their  arms  have  the  same  parched 
skins  and  wan,  haggard  faces.  And  the  cause  of 
all  this  is  opiuin. 

Such  a  village,  whose  wretchedness  and  degrada- 
tion I  have  inadequately  described,  is  known  through- 
out the  surrounding  country  as  an  "opium  village," 
No  matter  how  cheerful  and  gay  my  escort  of  Shansi 
police  might  be,  they  always  became  silent,  and  their 
faces  grave  and  serious,  whenever  we  passed  a  place 
of  this  kind.     They  almost  invariably  kicked  their 

57 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

ponies'  ribs  vigorously  as  we  approached  it,  and 
rode  through  at  a  gallop.  The  shi  jang  was  very 
loath  to  talk  about  opium  villages.  The  subject 
was  evidently  distasteful  to  him.  He  would  usually 
shake  his  head  evasively  when  I  asked  him  about 
them,  and  his  answers,  as  Wang  translated  them, 
were  invariably  to  the  effect  that  "  they  must  all  die 
sure."  "There  is  no  hope  for  them."  "  Opium  has 
got  them."  But  from  missionaries  in  Shansi  and 
provincial  officials,  I  obtained  some  further  account 
of  the  havoc  wrought  by  opium  in  the  northwestern 
provinces  of  China.  Every  year  a  number  of  the 
mountain  settlements  succumb  to  the  blight  on  the 
land  and  sink  into  "opium  villages."  The  entire 
population  becomes  addicted  to  the  habit  simulta- 
neously. The  drug  is  introduced  into  a  village. 
Someone  delighted  with  the  sensations  which  follow 
his  first  smoke  tells  his  neighbours.  They  all  experi- 
ment with  it.  They,  too,  are  all  charmed  with  the 
happy  oblivion  it  gives  to  cold  and  fatigue  and  the 
dull  monotony  of  their  lives.  Men,  women,  and 
children  begin  systematically  to  smoke  opium.  It  is 
only  a  question  of  time  before  they  become  its  vic- 
tims. Their  fields  are  neglected  ;  they  cease  to  care 
for  nourishing  food  ;  the  only  interest  they  have  in 
life  is  the  fatal  fruit  of  the  poppy  ;  they  cease  to  be 
recognised  as  human  beings ;  they  are  only  dwellers 
in  an  "opium  village."  From  that  time  their  doom 
is  sealed.  Their  village  is  shunned  as  far  as  possible 
by  everyone  and  they  are  referred  to  as  a  company 

58 


THE    BLIGHT   ON   THE    LAND 

of  the  lost,  very  much  as  though  they  were  already 
dead.  By  degrees  all  that  they  have  in  the  world 
is  spent  to  satisfy  their  cravings  for  opium.  Either 
as  a  direct  result  of  its  use  or  because  of  the  exposure 
and  neglect  incident  to  it,  they  die,  one  by  one,  un- 
til what  was  for  centuries  a  dwelling-place  of  peace- 
ful, contented  husbandmen  becomes  only  a  shapeless 
mass  of  crumbling  walls  and  roofless  houses,  deserted 
and  untenanted,  where  no  sound  of  human  voice 
breaks  the  mountain  stillness,  and  where  the  bitter, 
Mongolian  winds  of  winter  sweep  unchecked  through 
the  wrecks  of  homes. 

As  there  are  no  mortuary  statistics  in  China,  it 
is  impossible  to  give  in  figures  the  full  force  of  the 
destroying  effect  upon  the  population  of  the  opium 
traffic.  But  no  one  who  has  travelled  through 
Shansi  and  Shensi  can  doubt  for  a  moment  that  the 
number  of  its  victims  in  these  two  provinces  alone 
reaches  many  thousands  every  year.  It  is  hard  to 
find  a  town  of  any  size  that  does  not  contain  at  least 
one  opium  retreat  or  cure.  On  a  much  larger  scale, 
these  institutions  serve  a  purpose  somewhat  similar 
to  gold-cure  and  inebriate  asylums  in  America. 
Some  of  them  are  owned  by  Chinese  physicians 
who  profess  to  have  found  a  cure  for  the  habit, 
but  many  are  maintained  by  the  different  shens  or 
districts,  where  they  exist,  as  forlorn  hopes  for  the 
besotted  wretches  on  whom  the  curse  has  fallen. 
Some  of  the  medical  missions,  too,  maintain  opium 
refuges,  and  in  some  cases  have  effected  cures  by  a 

59 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

treatment  which  consists  of  a  substitution  of  mor- 
phine pills  for  opium.  The  quantity  of  morphine 
is  gradually  reduced  until  the  patient  is  able  to  do 
without  it  altogether.  But  many  as  the  refuges 
are,  the  number  of  lives  they  save  is  infinitesimal 
compared  with  the  wholesale,  wide-spread  destruc- 
tion which  the  scourge  of  opium  has  brought  and 
is  bringing  upon  China. 

It  is  not  intended  to  discuss  fully  here  the  Eng- 
lish opium  traffic,  about  which  volumes  have  been 
written  and  which  still  goes  on,  and  probably  will  go 
on  until  either  "helpless  China"  grows  strong  enough 
to  resist,  or  the  conscience  of  a  Christian  nation  be- 
comes less  complacently  callous ;  but,  impressed  as 
I  could  not  fail  to  be  by  the  deserted,  withered 
villages  of  Shansi,  I  cannot  refrain  from  making  a 
few  passing  observations  on  some  of  the  phases  of 
the  question. 

In  recognition  of  a  clamour  from  almost  the  en- 
tire civilised  world  against  the  injury  which  a  persist- 
ence in  the  Indian  opium  trade  was  inflicting  upon 
China,  the  British  Parliament  of  1893  appointed  a 
Royal  Commission  to  inquire  fully  and  thoroughly 
into  the  subject.  The  sessions  of  the  Commission  in 
London  lasted  for  several  months  during  the  winter 
of  1 893-1 894.  The  result  of  their  labours  and  in- 
vestigations was  subsequently  published  in  a  report 
which  fills  seven  volumes.  So  far  as  the  moral  side 
of  the  question  is  concerned,  the  substance  of  the  en- 
tire voluminous  document  was,  that  opium  is  not  at 

60 


THE    BLIGHT    ON   THE    LAND 

all  a  bad  thing,  that  if  smoked  in  moderation  it  did 
not  hurt  anybody,  that  very  few  persons  in  China 
smoked  it  to  excess,  and  that  the  Chinese,  as  a 
whole,  had  no  desire  to  stop  the  traffic. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  report  did   not 
make  its  appearance  before  Mr.  Gulliver  started  on 
his    travels.     Extracts    from    the    seven   volumes 
would  have  made  excellent  literature  for  him  to 
read  aloud  into  the  ear  of  the  King  of  Brobdingnag. 
Even  from  what  everyone  knows  to  be  the  effect 
of  the  use  of  opium  upon  its  victims  in  Europe  and 
America,  the  finding  of  the  Commission  that  it  is  al- 
most harmless,  is,  on  the  face  of  it,  so  little  less  than 
a  redudio  ad  absurdum,  that  it  would  hardly  be 
worth    taking    seriously  were  it  not  that  it  is  bol- 
stered up  by  a  mass  of  testimony  from  witnesses  who 
certainly  ought  to  be  conversant  with  Chinese  con- 
ditions.    It  is  this  testimony,  it  seems  to  me,  far 
more  than  the  report  itself,  which  might  mislead 
some  persons  into   believing  that  the  findings  of 
the  Royal  Commission  were  in  some  slight  degree 
founded  on  fact.     The  following  is  a  sample  of  this 
testimony  :  "  We  have,"  say  the  Commission,  "  re- 
ceived also  a  communication  in  writing  from  Mr. 
Duff,  a  merchant  in  China  of  thirty  years'  standing, 
whose  opinion  is  that,  in  the  circumstances  of  their 
living,  food,  climate,  and  habitations,  opium  has  no 
deleterious  effect  upon  the  Chinese,   indeed  quite 
the  contrary,  for  it  is  a  positive  need  and  they  could 
not  do  without  it."     That  anyone  could  ever  have 

6i 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

delivered  himself  of  such  an  "  opinion  "  would  be 
almost  incredible  were  the  fact  not  recorded  in 
the  report.  If  "Mr.  Duff,  a  merchant,"  had  given 
it  as  his  "  opinion "  that  the  natural  tendency  of 
a  river  is  to  flow  up-hill,  or,  if  he  had  said  that 
after  thirty  years'  contemplation  of  the  moon  his 
"  opinion  "  was  that  it  was  of  the  substance  of  green 
cheese  it  would  have  been  equally  creditable  to  his 
judgment  and  power  of  observation.  It  may  be 
possible  that  during  the  long  period  in  which  Mr. 
Duff  maintained  an  upright  position  in  China,  he, 
like  many  foreigners,  seldom  left  a  treaty-port. 
Since  reading  his  "opinion,"  I  have  wondered 
whether,  if  Mr.  Duff  were  to  "stand,"  not  for  thirty 
years  but  for  thirty  minutes  in  some  dying  Shansi 
village,  where  he  could  see  the  "  circumstances  of 
living  "  of  the  inhabitants  and  the  awful  wrecks  of 
former  "  habitations,"  he  would  not  feel  inclined  to 
revise  his  "  opinion  "  that  opium  has  no  deleterious 
effects  upon  the  Chinese. 

There  may  be  Chinese  in  China  who  believe  in 
the  harmlessness  of  opium  and  who  desire  to  have  its 
sale  continued.  I  have  been  told  that  there  are 
such,  but  I  confess  that  I  have  never  met  them. 
On  the  contrary,  of  the  scores  of  Chinese  in  all 
walks  of  life  who  discussed  the  opium  question  with 
me,  I  have  not  found  one  who  did  not  see  in  opium 
the  blackest  and  most  foreboding  cloud  that  hangs 
over  China  to-day.  Some  of  the  officials  even  went 
so  far  as  to  ascribe  China's  inability  to  cope  with 

62 


THE   BLIGHT   ON   THE    LAND 

newly  arisen  conditions,  and  her  consequent  losses 
and  failures,  to  the  present  weakened  and  besotted 
minds  and  character  of  her  people  due  to  a  century 
of  opium.  When  the  Taotai  of  the  Shansi  foreign 
office  wished  to  assure  me  of  the  excellent  character 
of  the  soldiers  who  were  to  accompany  me  through 
part  of  the  province  he  said,  "There  is  not  an 
opium-smoker  among  them,  and  you  will  find  that 
our  people  are  all  right  as  soldiers  or  anything  else 
when  they  leave  opium  alone,  but  when  they  use  it 
they  are  of  no  use  to  anyone."  The  highest  form 
of  recommendation  or  praise  which  could  be  be- 
stowed upon  a  man  in  the  interior  of  China  was 
invariably,  "  He  has  never  smoked  opium." 

But  if  the  Chinese  realise  the  awful  evils  of 
opium,  why  do  they  persist  in  smoking  it  ?  Look- 
ing at  the  question  solely  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
consumer,  and  considering  the  Chinese  as  indi- 
viduals and  free  agents,  I  grant  this  part  of  the 
argument  of  the  defender  of  the  opium  traffic.  So 
far  as  he  personally  is  concerned,  the  blame  for 
every  opium-victim's  blighted  life  and  wrecked 
mind  and  body  must  rest  with  himself.  There  is  no 
denying  that  while  the  average  Chinaman  fears  and 
shudders  at  the  little  jar  that  contains  the  product 
of  the  poppy,  it  possesses  for  him  a  subtle  fascina- 
tion which  he  is  no  more  able  to  resist  than  the  bird 
whom  a  snake  is  said  to  have  charmed  with  its  stare 
can  escape  destruction.  But,  as  a  nation  and  a 
government,  the  fault  of   the  continuance  of   the 

63 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

curse  does  not  lie  with  tlie  Chinese.  Ever  since 
1773,  when  the  British  East  India  Company  made 
its  first  experimental  opium-shipment,  China  has 
fought  and  protested  and  pleaded  to  have  the  im- 
portation of  the  drug  stopped.  In  fact,  it  is  doubt- 
ful if  the  history  of  any  other  country  during  the 
nineteenth  century  affords  such  an  exhibition  of  a 
long  and  hopeless  struggle  in  the  maintenance  of  a 
principle  against  overwhelming  odds.  When  opium 
was  first  introduced  into  China  from  western  Asia, 
the  government  foresaw  the  death  and  disaster  that 
would  come  upon  the  empire  if  its  use  became  gen- 
eral. The  cultivation  of  the  poppy  was  forbidden, 
and  the  enforcement  of  stringent  laws  against  the 
sale  of  opium  succeeded  in  keeping  it  out  of  the  em- 
pire until  its  importation  in  British  ships  from  India 
began.  Finding  all  appeals  fruitless,  the  Chinese 
Commissioner  Li  destroyed  several  thousand  chests 
of  British  opium  in  Canton,  and  the  "opium  war" 
of  1842  was  the  result.  It  ended  by  China's  paying 
an  indemnity  of  $21,000,000  to  Great  Britain,  and 
in  transferring  the  ownership  of  the  island  of  Hong 
Kong  to  the  victorious  Christian  nation. 

By  the  treaty  of  Tientsin,  in  i860,  following  an- 
other war  with  England,  the  importation  and  sale  of 
opium  was  declared  legal ;  but,  even  then,  China, 
crushed  and  humiliated  as  she  was,  did  not  give  up 
the  struggle.  In  1868  the  prime  minister,  Wen 
Hsiang,  acting  in  the  name  of  the  emperor,  sent  a 
most  touching  appeal  to  Her  Majesty  Queen  Vic- 

64 


THE    BLIGHT   ON    THE    LAND 

toria,  begging  her  to  put  a  stop  to  the  awful  opium- 
crime  which  her  people  were  forcing  upon  China. 
The  appeal  "  offered  anything  that  might  be  desired 
in  the  way  of  concession  to  British  trade,  anywhere 
in  the  empire,  agreeing  in  advance  to  yield  to  any 
demand,  if  only  this  one  curse  against  which  China 
had  fought  in  vain  for  years  might  be  removed."  * 
The  only  notice  ever  taken  of  Wen  Hsiang's  appeal 
was  a  curt  rejoinder  from  the  British  Minister  in 
Pekin  to  the  effect  that  he  had  received  no  reply  to 
it  from  his  Government  and  that  none  need  be  ex- 
pected by  the  Chinese  Cabinet. 

While  the  Government  of  China  has  not  al- 
tered its  attitude  of  pleading  with  all  the  nations  of 
Christendom  to  stop  the  traffic,  it  has  during  the 
last  twenty  years  permitted  the  cultivation  and  sale 
of  opium  by  its  own  subjects  and  within  its  own 
borders.  In  southern  Shansi  and  in  the  valley  of 
the  Wei  Ho,  I  have  seen  hundreds  of  fields  abloom 
with  bright  poppy-flowers.  So  extensive  has  the 
domestic  production  of  opium  become,  that  the  rev- 
enues to  the  Indian  Government  resulting  from  the 
sale  of  the  drug  were  reduced  from  ^8,251,670  in 
1879-80  to  ^3,159,400  in  1895-96.-1-  The  fact  that 
opium  is  now  raised  by  the  natives  is  sometimes 
advanced  as  an  argument  that  China  really  desires 
the  continuance  of  the  traffic  ;  but  in  point  of  fact 

*  The  Real  Chinese  Question,  by  Chester  Holcombe ;   page  278. 
t  The  Report  of  the  Opium  Commission  by  Arnold  Foster  in  Contempo- 
rary Review,  1898. 

65 


THROUGH    HIDDEN   SHENSI 

it  only  goes  to  prove  the  reverse.  The  ancient 
edicts  prohibiting  its  cultivation  and  sale  have 
never  been  repealed,  and  to  this  day  flagrant  vio- 
lations of  them  are  occasionally  punished  in  Pekin 
and  some  of  the  larger  cities ;  but,  realising,  after 
a  century  of  defeat,  humiliation,  and  loss  of  terri- 
tory, that  attempts  to  stay  the  British  protected 
scourge  were  fruitless,  and  knowing,  too,  that  Eng- 
land's real  motive  was  only  pounds,  shillings,  and 
pence,  the  Chinese  Government  has  decided  that  if 
money  must  be  made  by  the  perpetuation  of  a  na- 
tional crime,  the  gain  shall  belong  to  its  own  sub- 
jects, who  are  the  sufferers.  With  a  patience  and 
dignity  that  are  the  heritage  of  four  thousand  years, 
China  says  to  the  greatest  of  Christian  nations  to- 
day :  "  You  are  stronger  than  we.  We  cannot  pre- 
vent the  deadly  scourge  with  which  you  waste  us  at 
noonday,  which  stupefies  and  degrades  and  withers, 
which  transforms  once  happy  villages  into  charnel- 
houses.  We  cannot  stay  your  hand,  but  we  can 
and  we  will  retain  the  profit  of  the  transaction,  and 
your  greed  will  be  in  vain." 

And  yet  Christians  in  England  and  America 
sometimes  wonder  why  it  takes  so  long  a  time  for 
the  light  of  the  Gospel  to  penetrate  the  "  heathen  " 
darkness  of  China. 


66 


ifur^ir" 


AX    OI'ILM    UiaUiAK. 


CHAPTER  VI 

TO  TAI  YUAN 

PING  TING  is  about  half-way  through  the 
Shansi  Mountains.  Beyond  it  the  road  to  Tai 
Yuan  passes  through  a  wilderness.  The  terraces 
and  fields  appear  only  at  intervals.  Towns  are 
farther  apart,  and,  except  for  the  incessant  stream  of 
travel  one  meets  with  in  the  road,  signs  of  human 
habitation  are  rarely  to  be  seen.  The  rocks  and 
boulders,  too,  so  prominent  in  the  landscape  among 
the  foot-hills  of  the  mountains,  disappear  as  the 
traveller  advances.  For  mile  after  mile  the  hill  sides 
are  all  of  a  hard,  reddish-brown  clay,  on  which  the 
only  vegetation  consists  of  a  kind  of  coarse  grass 
and  a  few  stunted  trees.  Such  few  dwellings  as  do 
exist  consist  only  of  clusters  of  caves  built  into 
the  clay  of  the  hill  side.  The  force  of  the  freshets 
which  sweep  down  the  mountains  in  the  spring  is 
evidenced  by  other  caves  thirty  or  forty  feet  above 
the  level  of  the  road,  constructed  as  places  of  refuge 
for  travellers  who  might  otherwise  be  swept  away 
by  the  sudden  torrent.  The  narrow  road  runs 
along  the  edge  of  deep  gorges  and  ravines  whose 
banks  rise  so  precipitously  that  I  was  in  constant 

67 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

expectation  of  seeing  a  balky  mule  go  tumbling  over 
the  side,  but  no  such  catastrophe  ever  took  place. 
The  mules  were  Chinese  mules  ;  and,  although  they 
showed  a  great  fondness  for  precipices,  they  never 
lost  their  heads  or  their  balance  sufficiently  to  fall 
over  the  edge. 

This  is  the  part  of  China  where  camels  are  most 
frequently  used  as  beasts  of  burden.  They  are  as 
much  a  source  of  terror  to  Chinese  ponies  as  loco- 
motives are  to  American  horses.  For  this  reason 
camel-caravans  are  permitted  to  travel  through  the 
mountains  only  at  night.  They  are  encountered 
early  in  the  morning  or  at  sunset.  Sounding  through 
the  solitude  of  the  mountain  defiles  at  these  times, 
one  is  likely  to  hear  the  tinkle  of  a  distant  bell.  It 
grows  gradually  nearer  and  nearer,  until  the  yellow 
head  and  the  long,  ungainly  neck  of  a  camel  come 
swinging  around  a  bend  in  the  road.  The  bell  is 
the  badge  of  the  first  camel,  who  is  the  leader  of 
the  caravan.  The  rest  follow  behind  in  single  file, 
and  will  go  anywhere  that  the  tinkle  may  lead.  The 
head-driver  of  the  caravan  rides  the  first  camel,  and 
three  or  four  other  drivers  are  scattered  throughout 
the  train,  but  by  far  the  greater  number  of  them  are 
never  guided  in  any  other  way  than  by  the  sound 
of  the  leader's  bell. 

The  home  of  the  camel  in  Asia  is  Mongolia,  and 
from  that  country  come  most  of  their  drivers.  They 
are  natural  nomads,  and  many  of  them  have  no 
home  but  their  perch  on  the  camel's  back.     Their 

68 


TO   TAI   YUAN 

costume  differs  considerably  from  the  Chinese,  and 
is  more  picturesque.  They  wear  short,  goatskin 
coats,  that  in  pattern  are  not  unlike  American  pea- 
jackets,  and  raw-hide  top-boots  that  extend  above 
their  knees.  The  Chinese  say  that  the  drivers  un- 
derstand the  camel-language,  and  frequently  con- 
verse in  it,  and  it  is  a  fact  that  it  is  a  common  occur- 
rence, in  passing  a  caravan,  to  find  all  the  drivers 
talking,  in  subdued  undertones,  to  the  animals  they 
ride,  as  though  they  believed  they  were  being  under- 
stood. Camels  might  be  called  the  "  long-haul " 
freight-trains  of  northwestern  China.  The  local 
transfers  and  "short-hauls"  are  made  by  carts  or 
donkeys,  but  it  is  on  the  humped  backs  of  camels 
that  freight  is  carried  for  hundreds  of  miles  over 
roads  that  would  be  impassable  for  any  other  method 
of  transportation.  On  their  clumsy  pack-saddles 
they  carry  every  kind  of  merchandise  known  to  the 
Middle  Kingdom,  from  bags  of  rice  to  Japanese 
sulphur-matches.  Outside  of  almost  every  large 
town  on  the  way,  one  finds  an  inclosure,  surrounded 
by  a  brick  wall.  This  is  a  resting-place  for  camels. 
Here  they  sleep  during  the  day,  with  their  drivers 
lying  on  the  ground  beside  them. 

As  we  left  our  kung  kwan  one  morning  at  a 
place  called  Ja  Shu,  I  noticed  that  my  stirrup-straps 
were  made  of  knotted  pieces  of  old  rope.  Through 
Wang  I  remonstrated  with  the  mafu,  who  was  a 
hulking,  muscular  chap,  over  six  feet  tall,  but  he 
assured  me  that  I  would  find  the  rope  stronger  than 

69 


THROUGH    HIDDEN   SHENSI 

any  leather  I  had  ever  used.  Within  half  an  hour 
after  leaving  the  town  we  came  suddenly  upon  a 
caravan  of  camels  emerging  from  a  steep  defile. 
My  pony  shied,  then  stopped  short ;  both  stirrup- 
straps  snapped,  and  I  slipped  neatly  over  the  pony's 
head.  With  an  aching  shoulder  I  managed  to  crawl 
up  on  the  bank  by  the  side  of  the  road.  As  I  col- 
lected myself  and  looked  around  I  saw  Wang  vigor- 
ously kicking  the  mafu,  at  the  same  time  sputtering 
in  language  which  I  could  not  understand,  but 
which,  from  the  manner  of  its  delivery,  I  judged  to 
be  of  a  decidedly  uncomplimentary  character.  Wang 
was  so  much  shorter  than  the  mafu  that,  in  order  to 
make  his  kicks  effective,  he  had  to  stand  two  feet 
above  him  on  the  bank.  I  called  to  him  to  desist, 
and  he  came  up  to  me  with  his  black  eyes  blazing 
and  his  yellow  face  pink  with  anger. 

"  What  are  you  kicking  him  for  ? "  I  de- 
manded. 

"  I  tell  him  he  bad  man,  he  foolish  man,  he 
give  my  master  stirrups  that  break  'em.  I  am 
teaching  him.     He  is  Japanese."* 

I  told  him  that,  while  I  appreciated  his  interest 
in  my  welfare,  I  thought  it  would  be  better  for  him 
to  make  no  further  attempts  in  the  instruction  of 
mafus.    I  also  tried  to  point  out  that  kicking  a  man 

*  The  use  of  the  Chinese  equivalent  of  Japanese  as  a  term  of  opprobrium 
is  a  survival  of  the  time  when  the  land  of  the  Mikado  was  a  tribute  nation. 
Great  as  has  been  the  humiliation  which  China  has  suffered  from  Japan, 
the  worst  insult  with  which  a  Pekinese  of  to-day  can  revile  his  enemy  is  to 
call  him  "Japanese." 

70 


TO    TAI    YUAN 

twice  his  size  possessed  a  certain  element  of  danger 
to  himself. 

"  Oh,  that  is  all  right,  sir,"  he  replied,  earnestly. 
"  The  mafu  know  he  has  done  wrong.  He  know 
he  is  no  good.  What  can  he  say?  He  must  be 
silent.     So  I  can  kick." 

Wang  was  right.  The  mafu  did  not  seem  to  ob- 
ject in  the  least  to  the  punishment  he  had  received. 
He  caught  my  pony  and  tied  my  stirrup-strings  se- 
curely enough  to  last  until  my  arrival  at  the  next 
town,  where  I  was  able  to  obtain  a  pair  of  leather 
straps.  The  episode  first  called  to  my  attention  a 
peculiar  trait  of  Chinese  character,  of  which  I  sub- 
sequently saw  many  instances.  Whenever  anything 
goes  wrong,  or  a  mishap  of  any  kind  occurs,  a  man 
who  is  in  any  way  responsible,  no  matter  whether 
he  is  intentionally  to  blame  or  not,  immediately 
becomes  passive.  He  makes  neither  excuse  nor  re- 
sistance, but  silently  awaits  the  punishment  which 
is  almost  certain  to  follow. 

Even  in  the  most  solitary  parts  of  the  moun- 
tains we  came  frequently  upon  little  shrines  by  the 
roadside.  Some  of  them  were  nothing  more  than 
caves  dug  in  the  sides  of  the  clay  banks.  Others 
near  the  villages  were  more  pretentious,  and  were 
built  of  brick,  but  the  arrangement  of  them  all  was 
the  same.  On  a  shelf  at  the  rear  were  always  from 
six  to  eight  idols,  images  of  the  gods  and  heroes  of 
the  three  religions  of  China,  Confucianism,  Buddh- 
ism, and  Taoism,  plainly  indicating,  by  the  way  in 

71 


THROUGH    HIDDEN   SHENSI 

which  they  were  grouped  together,  how  the  three 
creeds  have  blended  and  virtually  have  become  one. 
The  idols  are  usually  made  of  clay,  and  are  painted  in 
gaudy  colours.  The  strange  thing  about  the  shrines 
is  that  the  worshippers  are  so  few.  Of  the  hundreds 
of  country  shrines  which  I  passed  in  a  journey  of  fif- 
teen hundred  miles,  I  cannot  recall  more  than  three 
where  I  saw  men  or  women  in  an  attitude  of  devo- 
tion. A  Chinese  scholar  in  Sian  subsequently  ex- 
plained to  me  that  the  shrines  are  looked  upon  more 
as  a  protection  against  evil  spirits  and  a  source  of 
good  luck  than  as  places  of  worship.  They  are 
erected  by  the  Government,  but  the  ground  on 
which  they  stand  is  private  property,  which  the 
owner  is  only  too  glad  to  devote  to  the  purpose,  as 
he  believes  that  no  misfortune  can  befall  him  or  his 
family  while  the  painted  idols  stand  on  his  land. 
In  some  cases,  he  places  the  idols  under  an  ad- 
ditional obligation  by  washing  their  faces  two  or 
three  times  a  month ;  a  far  greater  attention  than  he 
ever  bestows  upon  his  own.  He  also  dusts  out 
the  shrine  and  keeps  it  in  repair.  Most  of  the 
shrines  are  cared  for  in  this  way,  although  a  few 
are  in  charge  of  itinerant  priests  who  travel  from 
one  to  the  other,  and  are  occasionally  to  be  seen 
standing  in  front  of  them,  holding  brass  bowls  for 
the  reception  of  a  few  cash  thrown  to  them  by  pious 
travellers. 

Perhaps  the  most  picturesque  characters  in  the 
mountains  are  the  imperial  couriers,  who  carry  de- 

72 


AN    IMPERIA[.   CC)UR1.1-:K. 


TO    TAI    YUAN 

spatches  from  one  provincial  capital  to  another,  and 
from  Pekin  to  the  mandarins  of  the  interior  towns. 
No  matter  how  rough  or  steep  the  road  may  be, 
the  courier  always  rides  at  a  gallop.  By  a  system 
of  pony  relays,  provided  by  the  Government,  a 
courier  is  able  to  cover  as  many  as  one  hundred 
English  miles  a  day.  He  seldom  wears  a  hat  of 
any  kind.  As  he  rides  with  his  bare  head  thrown 
forward,  and  his  queue  tied  tightly  around  it,  he 
has  the  appearance  of  a  mounted  cannon-ball  as 
he  comes  dashing  toward  you.  His  despatches  are 
carried  in  a  broad,  yellow  sash,  tied  tightly  around 
his  waist. 

About  two  miles  before  reaching  the  town  of 
Shou  Yang,  I  was  met  by  a  motley  collection  of 
soldiers,  mandarins'  servants,  and  boys,  all  wearing 
a  uniform  of  red  and  white  blouses  and  round  caps. 
They  were  led  by  an  old  man,  whom  a  sword  dis- 
tinguished as  a  retired  army-officer.  He  clambered 
down  from  his  pony  as  I  approached,  and  told  me 
that  he  and  his  followers  had  been  appointed  by  the 
mandarin  of  the  place  to  act  as  my  escort  into  the 
town.  They  fell  in  behind  Wang  and  myself,  and  I 
suddenly  found  myself  enjoying  the  entirely  new 
sensation  of  being  the  central  figure  in  a  triumphal 
entry.  The  townspeople  crowded  into  the  street 
and  filled  the  doors  and  windows,  pointing  and  talk- 
ing. Even  the  dogs  of  Shou  Yang  took  great  de- 
light in  barking  at  my  pony.  The  enthusiasm 
reached  such  a  pitch  that  several  citizens  discharged 

73 


THROUGH    HIDDEN   SHENSI 

bunches  of  fire-crackers  at  the  gate  of  the  kung 
kwan.  If  any  everyday,  common-place  American, 
such  as  I,  wishes  to  know  how  it  feels  to  have 
greatness  noisily  thrust  upon  him,  I  can  recommend 
a  public  entry  into  a  Shansi  town.  Compared  with 
it  the  environment  of  the  driver  of  a  circus  band- 
wagon is  quiescent  and  subdued.  For  a  time  I 
was  at  a  loss  to  understand  why  ancient,  filthy  Shou 
Yang  should  so  honour  me.  I  began  to  wonder  if 
the  fame  of  any  of  my  few  virtues  had  penetrated 
so  far  from  home.  I  had  almost  decided  that  such 
was  the  case,  and  was  sipping  my  tea  with  an  en- 
tirely unwonted  sense  of  conscious  rectitude  when 
I  noticed  Wang  and  the  banchaiti  engaged  in  ear- 
nest conversation.  "This  place  was  much  mission- 
ary trouble,"  Wang  presently  explained  ;  "  the  ban- 
chaiti is  saying  about  him." 

He  told  me  how  an  English  missionary,  named 
Piggott,  had  been  sent  in  chains  from  Shou  Yang 
to  Tai  Yuan,  where  he  had  subsequently  been  put 
to  death.  The  mandarin  of  Shou  Yang  who  had 
ordered  the  outrage  had  since  been  dismissed  from 
office  in  disgrace.  His  successor,  Wang  said,  "  Have 
much  afraid  of  the  European.  He  not  want  to  see 
them  or  talk  to  him  because  he  think  they  make  him 
trouble,  and  he  will  get  sack  like  other  mandarin. 
When  we  come  Shou  Yang,  the  mandarin  run  away 
and  hide  him,  but  he  send  old  man  to  meet  us,  so  if 
trouble  come  it  will  be  to  old  man  who  has  lived 
long  time  already." 

74 


TO   TAI   YUAN 

"  But  why  does  he  make  such  a  commotion 
about  meeting  me  ? "  I  asked. 

"The  old  man  is  much  afraid  the  European, 
too,"  Wang  repHed.  "  He  wish  to  please  you,  so  he 
get  his  friends  to  follow  with  him  and  make  the 
noise.  You  will  like  it,  and  you  will  not  make  him 
trouble  ? " 

With  a  feeling  of  disappointment  at  finding  that 
I  was  still  unappreciated  I  finished  my  tea,  and  then 
sent  for  the  aged  leader  of  my  triumphal  procession. 
I  told  him  that  no  one  on  earth  had  ever  seemed 
so  glad  to  see  me  as  were  the  citizens  of  Shou  Yang, 
and  that  no  welcome  I  had  ever  received  had  af- 
fected me  so  deeply.  I  assured  him  that  I  could 
never  forget  him,  and  I  requested  him  to  convey 
my  greetings  to  the  mandarin,  whom  it  pained  me 
greatly  not  to  have  seen.  As  this,  my  first  effort  at 
an  address  of  thanks,  was  unreeled  in  translated 
sections,  I  could  not  help  noticing  that  the  yellow 
shrivelled  face  of  my  guest  assumed  a  happier  ex- 
pression, and  he  settled  down  on  his  side  of  the 
tea-cups  with  the  air  of  a  man  from  whose  mind  a 
burden  had  been  removed.  After  he  had  lighted 
the  cigarette  I  handed  him,  he  asked  something 
rather  hesitatingly,  which  came  to  me  as  "He  want 
to  know  if  you  are  a  missionary,  sir  ? "  For  reply  I 
not  only  said,  "  No,"  but  I  showed  him  Prince 
Ching's  card.  The  effect  was  magical.  With  an 
agility  that  could  not  be  expected  for  one  of  his 
years,  he  stepped  into  the  middle  of  the  room  and 

75 


THROUGH    HIDDEN   SHENSl 

made  me  a  kow-tow.  "  The  mandarin  will  be  back 
to-morrow,"  he  said.  "If  you  will  wait  you  can  see 
him."  I  expressed  deep  regret  that  the  length  of 
the  journey  before  me  would  prevent  a  longer  en- 
joyment of  the  hospitality  of  the  town.  In  the  re- 
cessional I  insisted  on  the  gray-queued  veteran 
preceding  me.  My  last  glimpse  of  Shou  Yang  was 
two  lines  of  welcomers,  standing  facing  each  other 
on  opposite  sides  of  the  road,  with  their  leader  by 
his  pony's  head  between  them.  He  was  looking 
after  me  in  a  quizzical  way,  as  if  he  wondered  what 
manner  of  man  this  might  be  who  would  visit  Shou 
Yang  without  being  a  missionary. 

The  hill-country  was  left  behind  a  day's  journey 
from  Shou  Yang,  and  we  emerged  upon  a  sandy 
plateau  which  extended  all  the  way  to  Tai  Yuan. 
On  the  morning  of  the  tenth  day  after  leaving 
Pekin  our  shi  jang  rose  in  his  stirrups  and  pointed 
to  what  looked  like  a  range  of  gray  hills  that  crossed 
our  path  some  miles  away,  but  on  a  closer  approach 
they  developed  into  the  walls  of  Tai  Yuan,  the 
capital  of  the  province  of  Shansi,  and  the  end  of 
the  first  three  hundred  miles  of  my  journey  toward 
Sian.  By  referring  to  my  diary  I  found  that  the  day 
was  Sunday.  It  was  about  ten  o'clock,  and,  familiar 
as  I  had  become  by  this  time  with  the  absence  of 
rest-days  in  Chinese  weeks,  I  could  not  help  a  vague 
expectation  of  finding  quiet  streets,  closed  shops, 
and  a  portion  of  the  population  on  their  way  to 
some  place  of  worship  ;  but  I  was  soon  disillusion- 

76 


TO   TAI    YUAN 

ised.  The  gateway  through  which  we  had  entered 
led  directly  into  the  busiest  part  of  Tai  Yuan. 
Shop-keepers  were  at  their  counters,  venders  of 
various  kinds  of  merchandise  shouted  their  wares  in 
the  streets.  Mandarin's  chairs  were  constantly  pass- 
ing, and  even  an  opium-refuge  showed  signs  of 
activity.  Its  front-door  was  open  and  several  per- 
sons were  passing  in  and  out.  Tai  Yuan  certainly 
was  devoid  of  "  emblems  of  eternal  rest." 

During  the  three  days  following,  in  which  I  was 
the  guest  of  the  one  missionary  and  white  man  in 
the  town,  I  had  an  opportunity  of  seeing  something 
of  Shansi's  remote  capital,  which  few  white  men 
have  ever  visited.  The  population  of  Tai  Yuan  is 
about  50,000.  It  is  on  the  camel  caravan-route  from 
Mongolia  to  the  south,  and  is  consequently  quite 
an  important  business  centre.  It  contains  a  number 
of  Chinese  banks  besides  several  large  shops.  Its 
streets  are  dirty  and  unpaved,  as  streets  in  Chinese 
towns  usually  are,  but  they  are  also  without  that 
regularity  of  plan  and  arrangement  which  are  to  be 
found  in  some  of  the  cities  of  the  empire.  It  is  al- 
most impossible  to  walk  a  quarter  of  a  mile  on  a 
Tai  Yuan  street  in  the  same  direction.  It  twists 
and  turns  without  any  apparent  reason,  and  often 
ends  abruptly  in  the  brick-wall  of  some  house  built 
across  it.  In  the  2,000  years  of  its  history  Tai  Yuan 
has  known  many  of  the  devices  of  government,  but 
it  is  safe  to  say  that  among  them  all,  a  commissioner 
of  highways  has  never  played  an  important  part. 

77 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

Tai  Yuan  is  famous  for  its  siege  and  capture 
by  the  emperor  Tai  Tsung  of  the  Sung  dynasty. 
For  a  long  time  previous  the  city  had  been  the 
capital  of  the  dominions  of  the  Prince  of  Han,  who, 
by  an  alliance  with  the  Tartars,  had  set  up  an  inde- 
pendent kingdom  and  had  defied  the  reigning  dy- 
nasty. In  980  of  the  Christian  era  Tai  Tsung  and 
his  general  P'an-mei  led  an  army  against  it  and  laid 
siege  to  it.  Its  people  starved  and  died,  but  would 
not  surrender.  Not  a  stone  was  left  in  its  huge 
walls  but  what  was  broken  or  battered.  At  length 
Liu,  Prince  of  Han,  seeing  that  further  resistance 
was  useless,  threw  open  the  gates  and  admitted  the 
victorious  host.  Tai  Tsung,  struck  with  his  heroic 
defence,  not  only  spared  Liu's  life,  but  made  him  a 
duke  of  the  Empire.  Every  man,  woman,  and  child 
in  the  captured  capital  was  exiled  to  Chili,  and  the 
inhabitants  of  a  town  in  that  province  were  brought 
to  Tai  Yuan  to  take  their  places. 

The  people  of  Tai  Yuan,  and  in  fact  all  of  Shansi 
province,  have  always  been  extreme  in  their  hatred  of 
foreigners.  It  is  less  than  two  hundred  miles  from 
Tai  Yuan  to  the  borders  of  Western  Mongolia,  the 
land  which  still  cherishes  memories  of  Genghis 
Khan,  and  which  adjoins  Turkestan,  the  present 
home  of  Prince  Tuan.  The  fame  of  this  great  chief, 
by  whose  orders  Von  Ketteler,  the  German  Minister, 
was  killed,  is  everywhere  in  North  Shansi.  While  his 
residence  in  Turkestan  is  ostensibly  a  banishment 
ordered  by  the  foreign  allies,  it  would  not  at  all  sur- 

78 


TO   TAI    YUAN 

prise  anyone  familiar  with  the  character  of  the  man 
if  the  period  of  his  exile  from  court  were  really 
only  a  period  of  preparation  for  another  attempt 
to  expel  foreigners  from  China.  Rumors  that  such 
was  the  case  were  rife  everywhere  in  Shansi  when  I 
visited  the  province.  One  story  which  I  heard  in 
Tai  Yuan,  was  that  Prince  Tuan  was  recruiting  an 
army  on  the  border  and  boasting  that  within  five 
years  not  a  foreigner  would  be  alive  in  Pekin. 
However  much  truth  there  may  be  in  the  reports, 
and  whatever  may  be  Prince  Tuan's  future  inten- 
tions, there  can  be  no  doubt  that  his  influence  and 
.he  ideas  he  represented  were  paramount  in  Shansi 
at  the  time  of  the  Boxer  uprising.  It  was  in  this 
province  that  the  anti-foreign  movement  of  1899- 
1900  first  assumed  sufficient  proportions  to  be 
called  dangerous. 

At  the  time  that  the  foreign  legations  were 
besieged  in  Pekin,  Yu  Hsien  was  governor  of 
Shansi.  He  set  about  the  work  of  exterminating 
foreigners  with  a  systematic,  cold-blooded  cruelty 
that  is  almost  unparalleled  even  in  the  awful  story 
of  Boxer  horrors.  The  only  foreigners  in  the 
province  then,  as  now,  were  missionaries.  These 
Yu  Hsien  had  placed  under  arrest  by  the  district- 
mandarins  and  sent  to  the  capital.  Some  of  the 
missionaries  had  to  be  brought  from  quite  a  dis- 
tance, and  the  work  of  collecting  them  in  Tai  Yuan 
took  several  weeks.  Yu  Hsien  confined  them  in  a 
comfortable  building,  where  he  sent  them  food  and 

79 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

allowed  them  to  have  servants.  No  one,  not  even 
the  governor's  closest  advisers,  knew  what  he  in- 
tended doing  with  his  prisoners.  Some  of  the  mis- 
sionaries, I  was  told,  believed  that  his  object  might 
be  to  protect  them  from  the  violence  of  mobs.  In 
this  way  fifty-four  missionaries  were  gathered  to- 
gether in  Tai  Yuan.  Among  them  were  a  num- 
ber of  Roman  Catholic  nuns  and  the  wives  and 
children  of  Protestants.  One  Sunday  morning 
they  were  led  into  the  yamen  yard  of  the  governor, 
where  his  soldiers  put  them  all  to  death,  with  Yu 
Hsien  looking  on  and  directing  the  massacre.  For 
the  murders  at  Tai  Yuan,  no  mob  fanaticism  can 
be  urged  in  extenuation.  They  were  the  deliberate, 
wilful  acts  of  the  chief  executive  of  the  provincial 
government  in  obedience  to  an  "  extermination 
order "  from  the  Empress  Dowager's  government. 
Yu  Hsien's  death  was  later  demanded  by  the  allies 
in  Pekin,  and  the  Empress  Dowager  was  com- 
pelled to  order  him  to  commit  suicide.  This  he 
did  in  Tai  Yuan  within  nine  months  after  his  mur- 
der of  the  missionaries.  A  new  governor  with  less 
anti-foreign  sentiments  was  appointed  in  his  place  ; 
a  foreign  office  was  organised  in  Tai  Yuan  for  the 
express  purpose  of  dealing  with  indemnity  ques- 
tions, and  Shen  Tun  Ho  was  placed  at  the  head  of  it. 
This  man,  who  is  one  of  the  most  important 
characters  in  the  present  reconstruction  period  of 
China,  was  for  two  years  a  student  at  Cambridge 
University.      He    speaks  English    fluently,   and   is 

80 


TO    TAI    YUAN 

quite  as  well  informed  on  the  current  topics  of  the 
day  as  any  European  or  American.  Because  of  his 
known  friendliness  to  foreigners,  he  had  incurred  the 
hostility  of  the  conservative  party  at  court,  and,  in 
order  to  get  him  out  of  the  way,  he  had  been  made 
mandarin  of  a  little  town  near  the  Mongolian  bor- 
der, where  he  remained  in  comparative  obscurity  for 
more  than  ten  years.  When  Shansi  needed  some 
one  who  could  save  the  province  from  invasion  and 
punishment  for  Yu  Hsien's  crimes,  Shen  was  hur- 
riedly sent  for  and  made  Taotai  of  the  foreign  office 
with  full  power  to  settle  things  as  best  he  could. 
Instead  of  confining  his  efforts  to  a  consideration 
of  mere  money  indemnities,  he  began  a  policy  of 
conciliation,  which  has  thus  far  worked  remarkably 
well  with  foreigners  and  Chinese  alike.  He  insti- 
tuted the  Shansi  police  and  established  a  post-office 
in  Tai  Yuan,  not  only  for  the  safety  and  conven- 
ience of  foreigners,  but  in  order  to  bring  them  more 
in  touch  with  the  natives,  so  that  the  people  of 
Shansi  could  realise  that  the  "  outer  barbarians " 
were  human  beings  after  all. 

The  privilege  of  a  chat  with  Shen  Tun  Ho  is 
perhaps  the  pleasantest  thing  that  can  fall  to  the  lot 
of  a  visiting  foreigner  in  Tai  Yuan.  After  days  of 
dull,  teacup,  mandarin  etiquette  it  was  delightful  for 
me  when  I  called  on  him  to  hear  his  inquiry,  by  way 
of  a  beginning,  "  Do  you  prefer  a  cigar  or  cigarette  ?  " 
In  a  very  tactful  way  he  told  me  of  his  visits  to 
the   United    States.     "  I   want  to  see   New   York 

8i 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

again  before  I  die,"  he  said.  "  I  want  to  see  the 
high  buildings.  They  were  not  there  when  I  last 
passed  through  New  York  on  my  way  to  Cambridge. 
I  am  very  fond  of  America,"  he  continued.  "  In 
fact,  I  like  it  almost  as  well  as  I  do  England." 

I  complimented  him  on  the  Shansi  police  and 
told  him  that  they  were  the  only  men  I  had  met 
with  anywhere  in  China  who  positively  refused  to 
accept  "  cumshaw." 

"Ah,  I  am  glad  that  such  was  your  experi- 
ence," he  replied,  smiling.  "  I  am  trying  to  make 
soldiers  out  of  them,  not  merely  fighters,  but  sol- 
diers, as  you  foreigners  understand  soldiers.  I  am 
trying  to  get  it  into  their  heads  that  they  must  have 
a  soldier's  sense  of  honour,  which  will  not  permit 
them  to  receive  money  for  merely  doing  their  duty." 

About  eleven  o'clock  on  the  last  night  of  my 
stay  in  Tai  Yuan,  I  was  awakened  by  a  great  noise 
in  the  street.  Men  were  shouting  and  running  hur- 
riedly about,  beating  drums  and  blowing  trumpets. 
Guns  and  fire-crackers  were  being  discharged  at  the 
street-corners,  and  pandemonium  seemed  to  have 
been  let  loose.  Knowing  that  under  normal  con- 
ditions a  Chinese  town  is  always  exceptionally  quiet 
at  night,  I  realised  that  something  unusual  must 
have  happened.  With  visions  of  Boxers  and  other 
troubles,  I  dressed  hurriedly  and  rushed  into  the 
court-yard,  where  I  found  the  entire  household 
assembled,  with  the  missionary  in  the  centre  of  the 
group. 

82 


TO    TAI    YUAN 

He  pointed  to  the  moon,  the  edge  of  which 
was  darkened  by  an  eclipse.  He  explained  to  me 
that  according  to  Chinese  astronomy  an  eclipse  is 
caused  by  a  dragon  eating  the  moon.  The  citizens 
were  making  a  noise  for  the  purpose  of  frightening 
the  dragon  so  that  he  would  let  the  moon  alone. 
The  missionary  then  gave  a  very  clear  exposition  of 
the  real  cause  of  eclipses,  and  drew  imaginary  rings 
on  the  court-yard  pavement  to  show  the  relative  posi- 
tion of  the  sun  and  moon  and  earth.  Among  his 
listeners  was  Wang,  who  looked  very  grave  while 
the  explanation  was  in  progress,  and  apparently 
grasped  it  completely. 

"  You  understand  it,  do  you  ? "  the  missionary 
asked  my  interpreter  as  he  concluded. 

"Oh,  yes,  sir,"  he  replied.  "They  teach  the 
same  thing  in  the  Jesuit  school." 

By  and  by,  the  eclipse  passed  away  and  the  city 
became  silent  again. 

On  the  following  evening  we  were  at  the  little 
town  of  Su  Kou,  thirty  miles  south  of  Tai  Yuan, 
on  the  road  to  Sian.  At  the  close  of  a  hard  day's 
ride  Wang  and  I  were  seated  at  the  door  of  the 
kung  kwan.  In  the  cloudless  sky  the  unblemished 
moon  was  once  more  looking  down  peacefully  on 
the  race  which  it  has  known  for  more  generations 
than  any  other  of  the  children  of  men.  Wang 
looked  at  it  and  for  some  time  contemplated  it 
in  silence.  Then  he  said  :  "  I  think,  master,  that  the 
dragon  eat  so  much  of  the  moon  in  Tai  Yuan  that 

83 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

he  is  now  satisfied.  He  will  leave  the  moon  alone 
now,  and  he  will  eat  other  things.  Do  you  not 
think  so,  sir  ? "  I  replied  that  I  hoped  only  that  the 
dragon  would  not  suffer  from  dyspepsia. 


84 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  LAND  OF  YAU  AND  SHUN 

ON  our  side  of  the  world  we  are  disposed  to  re- 
gard John  Chinaman  as  an  isolated,  distinct 
type,  who  is  always  the  same — crafty,  imperturbable, 
and  "heathen" — described  by  some  worthy  persons 
as  "more  like  a  toad  than  a  human  being."  But 
even  a  casual  observation  of  the  "  toads"  in  their  own 
country  cannot  fail  to  impress  anyone  with  the  fact 
that  there  is  really  no  such  thing  as  a  general  Chi- 
nese type.  To  be  sure,  all  Chinamen  wear  queues. 
The  principles  of  their  language  are  the  same,  and 
they  all  believe  in  the  wisdom  of  Confucius ;  but, 
racially,  as  well  as  in  speech,  customs,  and  habits  of 
thought,  the  inhabitants  of  two  adjacent  provinces 
are  often  quite  as  different  as  are  Englishmen  and 
Scotchmen.  In  Chili,  traces  of  the  Tartar  are  every- 
where apparent.  The  people  are  more  slender, 
and  their  skin  is  much  whiter  than  in  other  parts  of 
China.  The  inhabitants  of  the  Southwest,  especially 
in  the  province  of  Sichuan,  give  evidence  of  racial 
contact  with  India.  The  Sichuanese  are  short  and 
thick-set,  and  have  dark-brown  complexions.  In 
appearance  they  closely  resemble  the  Ghoorkas  of 
the  Himalayan    foothills.     Their  temperament  has 

85 


THROUGH    HIDDEN   SHENSI 

far  less  of  reserve  and  dignity  than  has  that  of  their 
neighbours  of  the  North. 

In  Central  and  Southern  Shansi,  in  the  valley  of 
the  Yellow  River  and  of  its  tributaries,  live  another 
people.  They  are  taller  than  the  Sichuanese,  with- 
out the  regular  features  of  the  Tartar.  Their  skins 
are  unmistakably  yellow.  Their  noses  are  small  and 
their  lips  rather  thick.  They  are  of  the  original 
Chinese  stock,  although  their  lineage  is  not  so  direct 
as  is  the  case  with  the  inhabitants  of  southern 
Shensi,  of  whom  I  shall  speak  later.  The  men  of 
Shansi  are  taciturn,  industrious,  and  methodical. 
They  have  neither  the  traditional  fondness  for  war 
and  governing  that  are  the  heritage  of  the  Man- 
chus,  nor  the  light-hearted  gaiety  of  the  Sichuanese. 
They  are  devoted  to  their  homes ;  they  travel  as 
little  as  possible  to  other  parts  of  the  Empire ;  they 
are  content  to  reap  small  harvests  from  oft-tilled 
fields.  Perhaps  it  is  their  constant  closeness  to  nat- 
ure that  makes  them  worship  spirits  in  trees  and 
rocks  more  frequently  and  fervently  than  the  people 
of  the  plain.  The  dress  of  the  people  of  Shansi 
differs  in  some  details  from  that  worn  in  other  prov- 
inces. The  men  button  their  blouses  on  the  left 
side  instead  of  the  right,  and,  although  the  women 
bind  their  feet,  they  frequently  wear  over  them  high 
top-boots  with  long,  pointed  toes,  similar  to  those 
found  in  portraits  of  cavaliers  of  the  time  of  Charles 
II.  The  language  of  Shansi,  too,  is  a  distinct  dia- 
lect, not    very    unlike   that  of  Chili,  but    entirely 

86 


THE    LAND    OF   YAU   AND    SHUN 

different  from  the  speech  of  Shensi  or  Western 
Honan. 

It  was  into  this  different  China  that  I  plunged  on 
leaving  Tai  Yuan,  with  a  new  wen  shao  and  another 
escort  of  soldiers.  In  the  seventeen  days'  journey 
of  four  hundred  and  fifty  miles  from  Tai  Yuan  to 
Sian  I  met  four  white  men.  They  were  mission- 
aries, who  wore  the  native  costume.  From  Pekin 
the  signs  of  any  knowledge  of  the  ways  and  meth- 
ods of  the  outer  world  grow  fewer  and  fewer  as  one 
approaches  Shansi,  and  after  leaving  Tai  Yuan  they 
disappear  altogether.  It  is  no  longer  new  China, 
but  the  cradle  of  the  Chinese  race.  The  traveller 
leaves  his  kung  kwan  in  the  morning  in  a  town 
whose  population  is  perhaps  40,000,  he  stops  for  the 
noon  meal  in  another  of  20,000,  and  rests  for  the 
night  within  the  walls  of  a  city  containing  50,000 
inhabitants,  and  in  all  of  them  he  will  find  local 
traditions  of  kings  and  dynasties  that  ruled  thousands 
of  years  ago. 

From  the  beginning  of  this,  the  third  stage  of 
my  journey,  I  could  not  fail  to  notice  that  the  roads 
and  kung  kwans  were  better  than  any  previously 
encountered.  It  is  true  that  the  change  in  none  of 
the  highways  was  of  a  very  radical  character.  They 
were  still  essentially  Chinese  in  their  construction, 
or,  rather,  lack  of  construction;  but  some  of  the 
holes  in  the  road  had  been  recently  filled  with  stones 
or  the  branches  of  trees,  and  there  was  no  part  of  the 
entire  journey  through  Shansi  that  was  not  possible 

87 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

for  a  cart.  The  improvements,  I  learned  from  the 
banchaiti  at  our  first  stopping-place,  were  made  to 
facilitate  the  flight,  or,  as  he  termed  it,  the  progress 
of  the  Empress  Dowager  and  Emperor  over  the 
same  route.  For  the  same  reason  the  kung  kwans 
had  all  been  cleaned  and  newly  furnished,  and  the 
majority  of  them  had  been  freshly  papered  in  red 
and  yellow  for  the  imperial  occupancy. 

Four  days'  journey  from  Tai  Yuan  is  Kiehiu, 
the  strangest  city  I  saw  in  China.  In  all  the  coun- 
try roundabout  the  houses  are  of  mud  or  brick,  and 
none  of  them  is  over  one  story  in  height,  yet  the 
buildings  of  Kiehiu  are  all  two  stories  and  are  in- 
variably of  stone.  The  style  of  architecture  is  not 
in  accordance  with  ordinary  Chinese  standards,  but 
is  strongly  suggestive  of  a  German  town  of  the  fif- 
teenth century.  A  portico  along  the  entire  front 
of  the  second  story  is  reached  by  a  stone  stairway 
which  winds  up  the  outside  of  the  building  from 
the  court-yard.  The  roofs  are  all  of  tile,  and  the 
gables  are  usually  ornamented  with  images  of 
dragons  and  birds.  North  and  south  through  Kie- 
hiu runs  the  main  highway  of  Shansi.  It  serves  as 
the  principal  street  of  the  town,  and  is  its  only  real 
thoroughfare.  All  the  other  streets  are  alleys  about 
ten  feet  wide  that  twist  and  wind  for  miles  in  every 
direction,  making  of  the  city  a  labyrinth  of  which 
a  minotaur  might  be  proud.  In  designing  the 
houses,  care  has  apparently  been  taken  to  have  no 
windows   overlook    the  alleys,  so  that  in   walking 


.MA[X   STREET  OF   KIEIIll 


THE  LAND  OF  YAU  AND  SHUN 

through   them   one   sees   nothing   but   two    blank 
walls. 

Accompanied  by  a  soldier  of  my  escort  I 
started  on  a  little  tour  of  exploration  of  the  town. 
Leaving  the  kung  kwan  we  struck  off  into  one  of 
the  alleys  and  followed  it  continuously  for  about 
half  an  hour,  when  we  suddenly  emerged  at  our 
starting-point.  My  guide  told  me  that  we  had  re- 
turned by  a  different  route  from  the  one  by  which 
we  had  entered  the  labyrinth  ;  such  may  have  been 
the  case,  but  my  walk  had  certainly  given  me  the 
impression  that  I  had  traversed  only  one  winding 
alley.  The  entrances  to  the  houses,  too,  are  a  part 
of  the  maze.  A  small  gate  in  the  blank  wall  leads 
by  a  passageway  into  a  court-yard,  which  seems  to 
have  been  constructed  for  the  express  purpose  of 
misleading.  The  court-yard  is  usually  surrounded 
by  blank  walls,  through  which  there  seems  at  first 
to  be  no  exit  other  than  the  passage  whence  the 
visitor  has  entered.  At  the  farther  corner  the  guide 
presently  discovers  a  small  opening  that  leads  into 
another  court-yard  containing  the  house  for  which 
he  is  searching. 

No  interior  Chinese  town  makes  the  slightest 
attempt  at  lighting  its  streets  at  night,  and  Kiehiu 
is  no  exception  to  the  rule.  It  would  be  interesting 
to  know  how  its  citizens  who  attempt  to  return  to 
their  homes  after  sun-down,  succeed  in  finding  their 
way  to  their  respective  court-yards.  But  the  laby- 
rinth is  not  the  result  of  chance  or  accident.     The 

89 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

alleys  are  all  arranged  in  conformity  to  some  plan 
that  existed  in  the  mind  of  their  designer.  The 
passage-ways  between  the  walls  never  come  to  an 
abrupt  termination  ;  they  always  lead  somewhere, 
and  I  was  told  that,  when  the  key  to  their  general 
scheme  is  once  mastered,  their  intricacies  become 
as  plain  as  the  numbered  streets  on  Manhattan  Isl- 
and. What  is  the  reason  for  the  labyrinth  ?  What 
is  its  key  ?  Why  should  the  height  of  the  houses 
and  the  style  of  architecture  differ  from  all  the  rest 
of  Shansi  ?     Kiehiu  is  a  Chinese  puzzle. 

A  spur  of  the  Shansi  Mountains  crosses  the 
road  about  one  hundred  miles  south  of  Kiehiu.  The 
mountains  are  very  steep,  and  a  passage  through 
them  is  possible  only  by  a  narrow  defile  called 
Linshi  Pass.  Although  it  is  not  ten  miles  long  it 
took  our  little  caravan  more  than  four  hours  to 
make  its  way  through  it.  Ahead  of  us  were  three 
carts  so  heavily  loaded  that  after  every  quarter  of 
an  hour's  climbing  it  was  necessary  for  the  mules 
that  drew  them  to  lie  down  and  rest.  The  road 
was  not  sufficiently  wide  to  permit  us  to  pass  the 
struggling  carts,  and,  in  consequence,  our  progress 
could  be  no  more  rapid  than  theirs.  It  seemed  as  if 
I  had  never  experienced  a  worse  road  than  the  one 
through  Linshi,  and  it  was  surprising  to  hear  the 
shi  jang  say  that  it  was  in  remarkably  good  condi- 
tion. He  explained  that,  to  mitigate  its  discom- 
forts, five  thousand  soldiers  had  worked  for  two 
weeks  in  repairing  it  before  the  Empress  Dowager 

90 


THE  LAND  OF  YAU  AND  SHUN 

and  her  step-son  passed  over  it  on  their  way  to  Sian. 
Poor  Kwang  Su.  If  the  condition  of  Linshi,  as  I 
found  it,  was  the  best  his  subjects  could  do  for  him, 
the  jolts  on  his  road  to  exile  must  have  caused  his 
head  quite  as  much  uneasiness  as  did  ever  his  crown 
in  Pekin. 

Yet  the  difficulties  of  Linshi  constitute  one  of 
the  three  barriers  that,  if  properly  defended,  would 
make  Sian  almost  inaccessible  from  the  outer  world, 
and  a  knowledge  of  these  may  have  been  one  of  the 
reasons  why  the  capital  of  Shensi  was  selected  as  a 
eity  of  refuge.  From  the  coast  Sian  can  be  reached 
by  three  routes.  The  one  from  the  east  across  the 
province  of  Honan  passes  through  Tung  Kwan,  the 
Gibraltar  of  the  Yellow  River.  The  only  way  to 
Sian  from  Hankow  and  the  south  is  through  the 
mountain-wilderness  of  Southern  Shensi,  where 
there  are  no  roads,  worthy  the  name,  and  where 
many  of  the  trails  would  be  impassable  for  artillery 
trains  or  commissary  waggons.  The  road  from  the 
north  is  guarded  by  Linshi  Pass.  Until  railroads 
have  gridironed  the  Middle  Kingdom,  no  Emperor 
of  China  that  takes  refuge  in  Sian  is  in  danger  of 
having  his  exile  disturbed,  however  great  the  eager- 
ness of  his  enemies. 

Half  way  between  Tai  Yuan  and  the  borders 
of  Shensi  is  Ping  Yang,  the  capital  of  China  during 
its  Saturnian  age.  Like  other  ancient  nations,  The 
Black-Haired  people  love  to  tell  of  a  time,  peaceful 
and  perfect,  with  which  they  constantly  compare 

91 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSl 

the  troubles  of  the  present  as  they  long  vainly  for 
its  return.  This  period  was  far  back  near  the  start- 
ing-point of  Chinese  history,  during  the  reigns  of 
Yau  and  Shun  2356  to  2205  b.c,  two  hundred 
years  before  the  birth  of  Abraham.  Yau  and  Shun 
were  later  idealised  by  Confucius,  and  are  to-day 
reverenced  everywhere  in  the  Empire  as  its  two 
greatest  heroes.  Their  beneficence  and  goodness 
had  an  effect  even  on  the  elements.  The  wind 
always  blew  softly,  and  once  in  every  fortnight 
there  was  a  shower  of  rain.  Everyone  was  honest. 
There  were  no  thieves,  and  greed  and  covetousness 
were  unknown.  Yau  is  said  to  have  been  more 
than  ten  feet  in  height.  He  reigned  one  hundred 
and  two  years,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son-in-law 
Shun.  "The  sky  rained  gold  in  those  days." 
There  were  no  Boxers  or  missionaries  or  opium  ;  it 
was  a  serene,  happy  period,  whose  memory,  after 
four  thousand  years,  China  still  fondly  cherishes. 
Yau  and  Shun  set  up  their  capital  in  Ping  Yang. 
According  to  Chinese  story,  one  of  the  last  acts  of 
Shun's  life  was  to  make  a  pilgrimage  to  the  five 
sacred  mountains  of  the  Empire.  On  his  return  to 
Ping  Yang  he  offered  sacrifices  to  his  ancestors  '^  in 
a  temple  that  he  had  founded. 

This  temple,  the  Chinese  say,  was  about  three 
miles  south  of  Ping  Yang,  on  the  site  of  the  pres- 
ent temple  of  Yau  and  Shun,  which  is  to-day  one 
of  the  most  famous  places  of  worship  in  the  Em- 

*  MacGowan's  History  of  China,  page  i6. 
92 


TO    Tllli    MAKKKT    AT    I'lxXG    YANCL 


A    SHAN  SI    MILL. 


THE  LAND  OF  YAU  AND  SHUN 

pire.  A  temple  of  some  sort  is  said  to  have  existed 
on  the  spot  ever  since  Shun's  time.  The  present 
edifice  was  recently  enlarged  and  almost  rebuilt  by 
order  of  the  reigning  emperor  Kwang  Su,  who  wor- 
shipped at  its  altar  while  on  his  way  to  Sian.  The 
grounds  cover  about  ten  acres,  inclosed  by  a  high 
brick  wall.  Around  the  temple  are  tablets  to  kings 
of  the  early  dynasties,  but  the  usual  shrines  with 
their  painted  idols  are  conspicuously  absent.  The 
temple  stands  in  the  centre  of  the  inclosure.  It  is 
a  one-story  building,  about  sixty  feet  in  height.  In 
a  vestibule  are  two  heroic  statues  of  Yau  and  Shun, 
that  reach  from  floor  to  ceiling.  They  are  painted 
blue  and  red  and  yellow ;  in  their  physiognomy 
there  is  no  evidence  of  the  serenity  of  soul  with 
which  they  are  accredited.  Their  expressions  are 
decidedly  unhappy,  and  their  heads  are  thrown  for- 
ward at  an  angle  which  gives  them  the  appearance 
of  trying  to  scowl  at  any  admirers  of  subsequent 
generations  bold  enough  to  look  up  at  them.  In 
the  centre  of  the  temple,  on  a  high  table,  is  a  stone 
tablet  in  honor  of  the  two  hero-kings,  but,  as  in  the 
yard  outside,  there  are  no  idols.  Yau  and  Shun 
lived  long  before  China  became  inoculated  with 
Buddhism.  They  worshipped  their  ancestors  and 
Shang  Ti,  king  of  Heaven.  Only  the  emperor  in 
Pekin  is  now  privileged  to  offer  sacrifices  to  Shang 
Ti,  so  that  many  centuries  have  elapsed  since  the 
"  One  and  Supreme  God  "  was  worshipped  in  Ping 
Yang.     The  temple  is  now  consecrated  only  to  the 

93 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

memory  of  its  founders,  but  it  is  still  not  profaned 
by  "  images  made  with  hands." 

The  city  of  Ping  Yang  gives  evidence  of  its 
age  and  of  its  former  importance.  Its  black  walls 
are  massive  even  for  a  Chinese  tov/n.  They  inclose 
an  enormous  area,  only  part  of  which  is  occupied  by 
the  dwindled  population  of  the  city.  The  part  not 
covered  with  houses  and  streets  is  divided  into  small 
farms  like  those  in  the  surrounding  country.  In  the 
gates  of  Ping  Yang  there  is  a  curious  arrangement 
of  walls  that  proves  an  ancient  knowledge  of  fortifi- 
cation that  would  do  credit  to  a  modern  engineer  of 
Europe  or  America.  The  gateway  bastions  are  cir- 
cular ;  in  size  and  appearance  they  are  not  unlike  an 
American  locomotive  round-house.  Entering  by  a 
passage  through  the  centre,  one  passes  into  a  stone- 
paved  street  that  is  completely  shut  in  by  two  par- 
allel rows  of  high  walls.  The  street  winds  between 
them  for  almost  half  a  mile  before  it  passes  through 
a  similar  bastion  into  the  city.  The  arrangement 
would  seem  to  make  Ping  Yang  almost  impregnable 
to  any  attacking  force  not  provided  with  heavy  ar- 
tillery or  dynamite.  Even  should  an  army  succeed 
in  forcing  the  outer  gate,  it  could  be  annihilated 
while  passing  through  the  narrow  street,  by  missiles 
hurled  from  the  tops  of  the  walls  inclosing  it. 

While  riding  through  the  streets  of  Ping  Yang, 
I  came  upon  what  at  first  seemed  to  be  a  mandarin 
and  his  escort  on  their  way  through  the  city.  But 
the  sedan  chair  was  larger  than  usual  and  had  about 

94 


THE    LAND    OF   YAU    AND    SHUN 

twice  the  ordinary  number  of  bearers.  They  walked 
slowly,  as  though  their  burden  were  a  heavy  one,  and 
they  frequently  wiped  their  perspiring  faces  with 
the  sleeves  of  their  blouses.  Almost  everyone 
prostrated  himself  in  the  dusty  road  as  the  chair  ap- 
proached, and  remained  in  that  position  until  it  had 
passed.  Curious  to  see  who  this  much-honoured 
mandarin  might  be,  I  reined  up  in  the  shadow  of 
a  wall  and  stared  through  the  uplifted  curtains  of 
the  chair.  Within  it  sat  not  a  human  being,  but  a 
huge  idol.  He  or  she  or  it  (for  the  gender  of  idols 
is  somewhat  indeterminate)  wore  mandarin-robes 
and  a  velvet  cap.  The  hideous,  painted  face  of  the 
thing  in  the  chair  wore  the  mocking  leer  that  is  an 
idol's  prerogative.  It  seemed  as  if  the  idol  were 
exulting  in  ghoulish  delight  at  its  success  in  deceiv- 
ing, and  as  if  it  were  mocking  the  prostrate  men  and 
women  who  had  souls.  Processions  of  this  kind  are 
common  in  the  interior  towns  of  Shansi  and  Shensi. 
It  is  the  duty  of  the  mandarin  to  see  that  all  the 
idols  in  his  district  are  made  as  comfortable  as  pos- 
sible. A  well-regulated  idol  is  supposed  to  grow 
weary  of  spending  its  entire  time  in  a  musty  tem- 
ple and  to  find  the  labour  of  foretelling  good  or  bad 
luck  for  the  townspeople  a  trifle  monotonous ;  to 
keep  it  in  good  spirits,  it  is  taken  out  for  an  occa- 
sional airing  and  is  paraded  through  the  principal 
streets.  The  outing  is  supposed  to  restore  the  idol's 
equanimity  and  to  make  it  content  to  dole  out  good 
luck  for  some  time  to  come. 

95 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

In  every  other  manifestation  of  superstition  or 
religion  that  I  encountered  in  China  there  seemed 
to  be  at  least  a  spark  from  the  divinely  implanted 
universal  soul.  The  dragon  eating  the  moon  was 
the  world-old  allegory  of  the  eternal  struggle  between 
light  and  darkness,  between  good  and  evil.  Much 
of  the  image-worship  of  the  temples  could  be  ex- 
plained as  only  a  system  of  fixing  the  worshippers' 
attention  on  the  unseen  god  or  spirit  that  the  image 
represented,  and  could  no  more  be  properly  called 
idolatry  than  a  Romanist's  adoration  at  a  shrine  of 
the  Virgin ;  but  in  the  idol-procession  in  the  streets  of 
Ping  Yang  there  was  no  allegory  and  no  soul.  It 
was  only  the  sodden  worship  of  a  piece  of  painted 
wood  which,  for  a  race  and  a  people  that  once  pro- 
duced a  Confucius,  was  pitiful  and  saddening.  After 
I  had  seen  it,  I  no  longer  wondered  why  old  Yau 
and  Shun,  in  the  vestibule  of  their  imageless  temple, 
looked  weary  and  worried. 


96 


CHAPTER    VIII 
WHERE  GENGHIS  KHAN  FAILED 

AT  Ping  Yang  we  came  into  the  valley  of  the 
Fen  Hoa,  one  of  the  larger  tributaries  of  the 
Yellow  River.  For  a  considerable  distance  the  road 
ran  along  the  banks  of  the  river,  at  times  crossing 
rich  bottom  lands  and  at  others  skirting  high  clay 
cliffs.  On  promontories  where  the  river  wound 
among  the  hills  we  saw  a  number  of  pagodas.  Few 
pagodas  are  less  than  twelve  stories  in  height,  and 
some  have  as  many  as  sixteen  or  eighteen  stories. 
They  are  octagonal  in  shape,  the  base  sometimes 
covering  two  acres.  The  perimeter  of  each  succes- 
sive story  is  less  than  the  one  below  it,  so  that  when 
viewed  from  a  distance  the  entire  structure  has  very 
much  the  appearance  of  a  huge  obelisk.  Pagodas 
are  not,  as  is  sometimes  supposed,  places  of  worship, 
although  they  are  often  by  the  side  of  temples  and  are 
in  charge  of  priests.  They  are  more  in  the  nature  of 
monuments  commemorating  some  sage  or  especially 
virtuous  man. 

The  country  over  which  we  were  now  travelling 
was  the  scene  of  the  campaigns  of  Genghis  Khan  in 
his  wars  for  the  conquest  of  China.  While  Gen- 
ghis was  busy  in  subduing  the  Mohammedan  king- 

97 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

doms  of  Western  Asia,  he  sent  his  general,  Mau 
Hoa  Li,  to  invade  Northern  Shansi.  During  the 
four  years  following  1218  the  Mongols  pillaged  and 
massacred  and  burned  until  the  Fen  Hoa  valley  was 
reduced  to  a  desert.  Genghis  took  command  later 
in  person  and  was  leading  an  army  toward  Honan, 
when  he  died  in  Luh-pan,  in  Shensi,  in  1227.  His 
son,  Okkodai,  continued  the  war,  and  in  1231  fought 
his  way  through  Shansi  on  his  way  to  the  capital  in 
Kai  Feng.  It  is  a  commentary  on  the  valour  and 
resourcefulness  of  the  men  of  Shansi  and  Shensi  of 
those  days  that,  although  China  was  the  first  country 
invaded  by  Genghis  Khan  and  was  the  country 
whose  throne  he  seemed  always  most  to  covet,  it 
was  the  only  kingdom  which  the  great  Mongol 
never  conquered. 

From  their  position  the  two  old  yellow  prov- 
inces bore  the  brunt  of  the  fighting.  Their  people 
perished  by  thousands  in  defence  of  their  homes. 
Their  fields  were  laid  waste  and  their  cities  burned, 
yet,  with  the  dogged,  patient,  never-say-die  ob- 
stinacy that  has  always  characterised  the  old  Chin- 
ese stock,  they  fought  on.  They  were  not  able  to 
drive  back  the  invaders,  but  they  succeeded  in  so 
harassing  the  Mongol  armies  that  by  the  time  they 
had  reached  the  Yellow  River  they  were  no  longer 
strong  enough  to  conquer  the  country  to  the  south- 
ward. Forty  kingdoms  of  Asia  and  Europe  fell 
beneath  the  tramp  of  the  Mongol  horses  of  Gen- 
ghis,   but    Shansi    and    Shensi    never   surrendered. 

98 


WHERE    GENGHIS  KHAN    FAILED 

They  succeeded  in  keeping  up  the  struggle  until 
nearly  sixty  years  after  the  death  of  Genghis,  when 
his  grandson,  Kublai  Khan,  was  proclaimed  Em- 
peror of  China  and  Mongolia.  But  the  years  that 
the  Mongols  had  passed  in  conquering  the  Empire 
had  imbued  them  with  a  profound  admiration  of 
the  arts  and  learning  of  the  Chinese.  Even  more 
than  some  of  the  native  emperors  who  had  preceded 
him,  Kublai  did  all  in  his  power  to  keep  undefiled 
by  foreign  contact  the  system  of  Fuhi  and  the 
wisdom  of  Confucius.  He  gave  to  the  dynasty  that 
he  founded  a  Chinese  name.  Yuan,  and  adopted 
the  dress,  language,  customs,  and  religion  of  his  sub- 
jects. In  its  permanent  results  the  triumph  of  the 
Mongol  was  really  a  victory  of  the  vanquished.  It 
meant  the  absorption  of  the  wild  barbarians  of  the 
North  into  the  expanding  civilisation  of  the  people 
they  had  conquered. 

In  sad  contrast  with  the  men  of  Shansi  who  so 
long  kept  Genghis  at  bay  are  the  soldiers  one  finds 
in  the  province  to-day.  Ping  Yang  is  the  head- 
quarters of  a  brigade.  From  the  general  who  com- 
manded it  I  procured  one  of  the  relays  of  my  escort. 
In  detailing  them  he  very  graciously  gave  assurance 
that  they  were  six  of  his  best  soldiers.  They  were 
friendly  and  well  disposed,  but  they  all  smoked 
opium  to  such  an  extent  that  they  had  to  be  dragged 
from  their  brick  beds  in  the  morning,  and  they  fell 
asleep  in  their  saddles  so  frequently  that  I  momenta- 
rily expected   to  see  them  fall  from  their  ponies. 

99 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSl 

Four  of  the  six  carried  no  other  weapons  than 
broadswords,  slung  across  their  backs.  The  other 
two  were  armed  with  Mauser  rifles  of  an  ancient 
pattern,  but  not  one  of  the  party  possessed  a  cartridge- 
belt.  While  riding  through  the  fields  one  morning 
we  saw  a  large  eagle  calmly  perched  on  a  rock,  less 
than  a  hundred  yards  away.  It  was  so  superb  a  shot 
that  I  was  not  surprised  to  see  one  of  the  soldiers 
dismount  and  open  the  breech  of  his  rifle.  He 
walked  up  to  the  only  other  member  of  the  party 
similarly  armed,  and  the  two  held  an  animated, 
though  subdued,  colloquy.  It  ended  by  the  second 
soldier  climbing  down  from  his  pony  and  unstrap- 
ping his  pooka.  He  spread  it  on  the  ground,  and 
after  some  fumbling  he  drew  from  its  recesses  a 
canvas  sack  ;  this  he  untied  and  from  it  extracted  a 
cartridge,  which  he  handed  to  his  comrade.  The 
process  of  discovering  the  cartridge  had  consumed 
fully  five  minutes,  and  by  the  time  it  was  loaded  in 
the  breech,  ready  to  fire,  the  eagle  was  only  a  speck 
against  the  blue  sky,  far  out  of  range.  Without  a 
sign  of  the  slightest  impatience  the  owner  of  the 
solitary  cartridge  laboriously  tied  up  his  pooka  again 
and  strapped  it  once  more  on  his  saddle. 

On  the  way  through  Shan  si  I  met  several  regi- 
ments of  soldiers  returning  from  the  scene  of  the 
Boxer  uprising  in  the  north  to  their  homes  or  gar- 
risons in  other  parts  of  the  country.  None  of  them 
were  more  modern  in  their  methods  or  equipment 
than  the  six  who  accompanied  me.     Some  of  the 

lOO 


WHERE    GENGHIS    KHAN    FAILED 

soldiers  had  rifles  of  various  kinds,  but  cartridges 
were  few  and  far  between.  In  fact,  ammunition 
hardly  seemed  to  be  regarded  as  necessary  to  the 
effectiveness  of  a  weapon  ;  western-made  fire-arms 
are  as  yet  such  a  novelty  in  the  interior  of  China 
that  they  are  supposed  to  be  of  themselves  ample 
means  of  defence  without  the  aid  of  powder  or  bullet. 
Chinese  soldiers  on  the  march  look  like  the  chorus 
of  a  burlesque-opera  at  its  first  rehearsal.  Their 
uniforms  are,  I  believe,  more  picturesque  than  those 
of  any  other  army  in  the  world.  Their  tunics  are 
red,  or  purple,  or  yellow,  bordered  in  front  in  white 
cloth  into  odd  designs,  while  on  the  back  are  Buddh- 
ist emblems  and  the  names  of  the  regiment  to  which 
their  wearers  belong  ;  their  turbans  and  baggy  trou- 
sers are  black.  Without  the  slightest  attempt  at 
marching  order  they  straggle  along  the  road,  some- 
times in  single  file  and  sometimes  by  twos  and  threes. 
They  are  often  left  to  their  own  devices  by  their 
officers,  who  ride  a  mile  or  two  ahead  of  the  men 
they  command.  Along  the  banks  of  the  Fen  Hoa 
I  was  joined  one  day  by  a  young  captain  whose 
company  were  trailing  somewhere  behind.  He 
was  a  tall,  handsome  man,  who  made  a  notably  fine 
figure  on  horseback.  He  at  once  began  a  conversa- 
tion by  remarking  that,  although  we  had  travelled 
a  long  distance,  he  had  probably  seen  more  of  the 
earth's  surface  than  any  member  of  our  party. 
"  I  have  been  all  over  the  world,"  he  said.  "  I  have 
seen  Mongolia  on  the  north  and  Tibet  on  the  west ; 

lOI 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

I  have  seen  the  ocean  at  Hong  Kong  and  Shanghai. 
These  places  are  near  the  edge  of  the  world.  One 
cannot  go  much  farther  in  any  direction." 

But,  simple  as  the  Chinese  soldier  is,  he  has 
many  good  points.  He  is  patient,  strong,  and 
capable  of  enduring  great  fatigue.  He  can  live  on 
a  few  bowls  of  rice  a  day,  and  he  never  complains. 
Like  the  rest  of  his  race,  he  is  always  cool  and  self- 
possessed,  and  would  doubtless  be  slow  to  run  away 
from  danger.  To  be  sure,  he  is  mortally  afraid  of 
devils  and  the  spirits  of  his  ancestors,  but  this 
should  act  only  as  an  incentive  for  him  to  do  his 
duty  faithfully  in  order  to  escape  their  wrath. 
From  what  I  have  seen  of  soldiers  in  Shansi  I  am 
convinced  that  if  they  could  be  induced  to  leave 
opium  alone  and  if  they  were  properly  armed  and 
disciplined,  they  would  fight  as  well  as  their  ances- 
tors did  in  the  days  of  Genghis  Khan.  The  Chin- 
ese themselves  apparently  realise  the  weakness  of 
their  army  far  better  than  they  do  other  faults  of 
their  system.  The  only  innovations  in  which  the 
people  of  the  interior  seemed  to  me  to  take  any 
real  interest  were  those  which  had  to  do  with  mili- 
tary affairs. 

Ever  since  their  crushing  defeat  in  the  war 
with  Japan,  changes  in  army  methods  have  been  in 
progress.  Although  slow  in  their  development,  the 
changes  are  radical,  and  contemplate  nothing  less 
than  the  complete  re-organisation  of  the  vast  mili- 
tary forces  of  the  empire.     Manchus,  in  the  eighteen 

102 


WHERE    GENGHIS    KHAN    FAILED 

provinces,  who  for  centuries  have  been  supported 
by  the  government  as  a  militia  reserve,  are  now  com- 
pelled to  be  proficient  with  the  rifle  instead  of  the 
cross-bow  and  broad-sword  in  order  to  receive  their 
pensions.  As  the  result  of  a  series  of  Imperial  edicts, 
a  military  college  has  been  established  during  the  last 
two  years  in  the  capital  of  every  province.  Students 
are  admitted  by  appointment  of  the  governor 
much  after  the  way  that  some  West  Point  cadets 
are  appointed  by  the  President.  They  are  instructed 
in  European  tactics  and  in  the  use  of  modern  fire- 
arms, with  a  view  to  their  becoming  officers.  At 
least,  such  is  the  theory  on  which  the  colleges  were 
instituted.  Away  from  the  coast  the  plan  is  not  yet 
realised  because  of  the  difficulty  in  obtaining  foreign 
educated  teachers.  Under  the  old  regime  all  soldiers 
in  the  interior  provinces  were  in  charge  of  the  man- 
darin of  the  district  where  they  happened  to  be  sta- 
tioned. They  were  under  his  orders,  and  he  was 
held  responsible  for  their  drill  and  knowledge  of 
arms.  As  the  mandarin  was  a  purely  civil  function- 
ary, he  usually  knew  almost  nothing  of  military  mat- 
ters, and  consequently  allowed  the  discipline  of  the 
soldiers  under  his  command  to  grow  very  lax.  Civil 
and  military  affairs  are  now  separated  by  the  ap- 
pointing of  officers  of  the  army  as  military  mandarins 
to  command  in  every  district  where  there  is  a  detach- 
ment of  soldiers.  The  military  mandarin  has  full 
charge  of  everything  connected  with  the  army,  and  he 
has  equal  rank  with  the  civil  mandarin,  who  is  nov/ 

103 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

relieved  of  authority  over  tlie  soldiers  in  his  dis- 
trict. 

An  original  theory  of  night-watchmen  is  one 
of  the  peculiarities  of  Shansi.  In  that  province  it  is 
not  the  aim  of  a  guardian  of  the  peace  to  keep  away 
thieves  and  marauders,  so  that  the  man  he  is  pro- 
tecting may  rest  securely  and  without  thought  of 
danger.  On  the  contrary,  a  watchman's  constant 
effort  is  to  prevent  his  charge  from  sleeping  too 
soundly,  so  that  he  may  be  able  to  rise  quickly  and 
fight  any  sudden  intruders.  For  this  purpose  the 
watchman  carries  a  piece  of  hollow  bamboo,  on 
which  he  beats  under  the  window  with  a  short  stick 
every  half  hour.  A  description  of  this  apparatus 
may  not  convey  the  idea  of  its  formidable  character, 
but  when  one  is  awakened  by  it  from  a  sound  sleep 
after  a  hard  day's  ride  its  horrors  begin  to  be  real- 
ised. An  especially  zealous  and  faithful  watchman 
is  not  content  with  making  a  racket  at  regular  inter- 
vals. He  continues  rapping  his  piece  of  bamboo 
until  the  man  he  is  guarding  makes  some  outcry, 
showing  that  he  has  been  successfully  awakened.  A 
watchman  was  included  in  the  manage  of  only  some 
of  the  kung  kwans  where  I  stayed.  Had  he  been 
a  member  of  all  of  them,  sleep  in  Shansi  would 
have  been  for  me  an  impossibility. 

In  Tai  Yuan  I  had  purchased  a  pony.  He 
proved  to  be  the  best  horse  I  rode  anywhere  in 
China.  But  after  eight  days  of  continuous  travel 
he  failed  from  sheer  exhaustion,  and  by  the  time  we 

104 


WHERE    GENGHIS    KHAN    FAILED 

had  reached  Heo  Mah,  fifty  miles  south  of  Ping 
Yang,  he  was  unable  to  go  farther.  He  was  suffer- 
ing only  from  fatigue  and  needed  three  or  four  days' 
rest,  which  I  was  unable  to  give  him.  His  drooping 
condition  was  commented  on  by  the  soldiers  of  my 
escort,  all  of  whom  expressed  their  sympathy  that  so 
fine  a  pony  could  no  longer  be  of  service.  When  we 
arrived  at  the  kung  kvvan  the  soldiers  went  to  report 
to  the  military  mandarin  of  the  place  while  the  pony 
lay  down  in  front  of  his  manger  and  went  to  sleep. 
He  was  still  lying  there  when  the  military  mandarin 
passed  through  the  court-yard  on  his  way  to  see  me. 
I  was  somewhat  surprised  at  his  visit,  because  I  had 
no  business  to  transact  with  him,  and  all  calls  of  a 
purely  friendly  character  had  up  to  this  time  been 
made  by  the  civil  mandarins.  My  visitor  began  by 
making  a  kow-tow  and  asking  if  there  were  any- 
thing that  any  human  being  in  Heo  Mah  could  do 
that  would  add  to  my  comfort  or  happiness. 

I  replied  that  I  would  avail  myself  of  his  kind 
offer  by  asking  one  favour.  "  My  v/en  shao,"  I  said, 
"  calls  for  four  public  ponies.  Heretofore  I  have  used 
only  one,  but  now  that  my  own  horse  is  exhausted  I 
shall  have  to  ask  for  another."  His  face  brightened 
greatly  at  this,  and  he  at  once  asked  whether  I  did 
not  want  his  pony.  "  What  is  your  price  for  him  ?" 
I  inquired.  He  said  that  he  had  no  intention  of 
selling  him,  but  begged  that  I  would  accept  his 
pony  as  a  gift.  He  grew  enthusiastic  in  his  expres- 
sions of  unbounded  admiration  for  me  ;  he  bumped 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

his  head  on  the  floor  and  pressed  his  hands  on  his 
stomach.  I  tried  my  best  to  induce  him  to  accept 
pay  for  his  pony,  but  he  absolutely  refused,  and  I 
finally  accepted.  I  thanked  him  in  my  best  style 
and  gave  him  my  last  handful  of  cigars,  which  he 
said  he  would  keep  as  long  as  he  lived  as  a  remem- 
brance of  me.  I  think  it  likely  that  he  may  have 
kept  his  promise  in  this  regard,  because  I  am  certain 
that  he  had  never  seen  a  cigar  before.  As  the  mili- 
tary mandarin  rose  to  go,  he  asked  whether  I  in- 
tended to  leave  my  pony  in  Heo  Mah.  When  I  re- 
plied in  the  affirmative,  he  said  quickly,  "  Then  I 
will  exchange  saddles  now ;  I  will  leave  my  pony 
here  and  take  yours  with  me."  He  did  so  and  he 
and  my  drooping  pony  disappeared  together. 

I  was  surprised  to  find  that  my  feelings  of 
gratitude  to  the  military  mandarin  were  not  shared 
by  Wang,  who  had  been  the  medium  of  our  conver- 
sation. He  looked  worried  about  the  whole  trans- 
action and  said,  "  This  is  funny  thing.  He  have  got 
politeness  for  you  too  quick,  sir."  When  I  came  to 
inspect  my  new  gift-horse  for  the  morning's  start  I 
saw  why  the  military  mandarin  had  been  generous. 
All  four  of  the  pony's  knees  were  sprung.  His  ribs 
could  be  counted  from  across  the  court-yard  and  all 
over  his  body  his  joints  protruded  like  hat-hooks. 
My  visitor  of  the  night  before,  learning  from  my 
soldiers  of  the  condition  of  my  pony,  had  taken  this 
means  of  making  an  exchange  after  dark,  by  which 
he  had  obtained  one  of  the  best  horses  in  Shansi, 

106 


WHERE    GENGHIS    KHAN    FAILED 

and  to  me  had  been  left  an  animated  bag  of  bones. 
With  a  wish  that  David  Harum  could  have  met 
the  military  mandarin,  I  mounted  my  new  horse, 
and  after  a  day's  vigorous  kicking  and  urging  I  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  him  to  Wenhi,  our  next  stopping- 
place.  Fifteen  minutes  after  our  arrival  the  shi 
jang  came  up  and  said  he  wished  to  speak  with  me. 
"  He  say  he  have  bad  news,"  Wang  interpreted, 
"but  it  is  on  his  heart  and  he  must  tell." 

I  replied  that  I  had  nerved  myself  to  hear  the 
worst,  and  told  him  to  speak  on. 

"  He  think  that  your  pony  have  disease.  He 
believe  that  it  will  die  soon.     He  say  it  is  no  good." 

"  I  am  quite  sure  that  your  opinions  on  the 
subject  are  correct,"  I  said,  addressing  the  shi  jang, 
and  then  I  went  into  the  court-yard  and  looked  at 
the  pony.  He  was  the  most  melancholy  thing  I 
had  seen  in  Shansi.  His  head  hung  down  and  he 
was  sniffing  the  dust.  His  front-knees  were  half 
bent  as  though  he  were  too  tired  to  stand  up  and 
too  disgusted  to  lie  down. 

For  a  time  we  all  surveyed  him  in  silence  ;  then 
Wang  said,  "  Maybe  the  banchaiti  can  sell  it.  The 
feet  and  the  skin  is  good,  and  poor  mens  can  eat  the 
meat  of  it." 

I  immediately  accepted  the  suggestion  and  told 
the  banchaiti  to  try  to  sell  the  dying  gift.  He  suc- 
ceeded in  doing  so.  After  deducting  his  commis- 
sion I  realised  as  the  net  amount  of  the  sale  four 
taels  ($2.80).     As  Wang  weighed  the  lumps  of  sil- 

107 


THROUGH    HIDDEN   SHENSI 

ver  he  remarked  very  seriously,  "The  mihtary  man- 
darin is  only  young  man,  sir." 

"Yes,"  I  assented. 

"  He  is  such  a  young  man  and  yet  such  a 
clever  man  that  by-and-by  he  will  be  a  general," 
added  Wang. 

All  the  rest  of  the  way  to  Sian  I  rode  one  of 
the  public  ponies,  called  for  by  my  wen  shao.  They 
were  most  willingly  given  by  the  mandarins  of  the 
shens  through  which  we  passed,  and  I  was  never 
allowed  to  pay  anything  for  them  beyond  a  cum- 
shaw  to  the  mafu.  So,  after  all,  I  have  no  ground 
for  complaint  on  the  question  of  ponies,  and  I 
sincerely  hope  that  Wang's  prophecy  may  be  ful- 
filled and  that  the  military  mandarin  may  some  day 
command  thousands  of  men  in  yellow  and  purple 
uniforms.  But  it  would  be  a  source  of  great  satis- 
faction to  me  if  I  could  know  that  in  the  hour  of  his 
triumph  he  rode  to  his  first  review  on  a  thick-necked, 
red,  little  pony  whose  mane  and  tail  had  never  been 
combed  and  who  could  be  induced  to  singlefoot  by 
a  kick  high  up  on  his  left  flank. 

At  Wenhi  we  left  the  fertile  river-valley  and 
struck  across  a  dry,  rolling,  clay  plain.  The  heavy 
white  dust  and  parched  fields  proved  that  we  were 
approaching  the  famine-country.  The  corn  and 
millet  were  only  about  one-quarter  as  high  as  they 
should  have  been  at  that  season  of  the  year,  and 
even  the  poppy-plants  looked  wilted  and  sickly.  In 
a    number    of    villages    we   passed   under   yellow 

io8 


WHERE    GENGHIS   KHAN    FAILED 

streamers  hung  across  the  road  inscribed  with  pray- 
ers to  the  gods  for  rain.  The  drought  that  had 
caused  the  terrible  famine  in  Shensi  had  been 
equally  long-continued  in  Southern  Shansi,  but 
while  Shensi  was  starving,  Shansi  was  able  to  get 
food  from  the  perpetually  fertile  valley  of  the  Fen 
Hoa. 

On  the  fourth  day  after  leaving  Wenhi  we  were 
riding  one  afternoon  through  a  sunken  road,  whose 
banks  rose  so  high  that  we  were  completely  shut  in 
from  a  view  of  the  surrounding  country.  The  road 
suddenly  turned  sharply  to  the  right  and  went  down 
a  steep  decline.  A  few  minutes  later  we  emerged 
on  the  sandy  beach  of  the  Yellow  River.  A  mile 
across  its  sluggish,  muddy  current  the  black  moun- 
tainous cliffs  of  the  farther  shore  rose  steep  and 
lowering  from  the  water's  edge,  crowned  at  their 
summit  by  the  walls  and  battlements  of  Tung 
Kwan — Tung  Kwan  that  for  centuries  has  held  the 
road  to  Sian,  Tung  Kwan  that  Genghis  Khan  could 
never  storm  ;  there  it  was  still,  old,  gray,  impreg- 
nable, looking  down  on  the  original  river  of  China. 
The  shi  jang  pointed  to  it  and  said,  "  That  is 
Shensi." 


109 


CHAPTER  IX 
TUNG  KWAN  AND  THE  ORIGINAL    RIVER 

IN  his  first  campaign  for  the  conquest  of  China, 
Genghis  Khan  sent  ten  thousand  men  under  a 
general  named  San-kau-pa-tu  to  take  the  city  of  Kai 
Feng,  in  Honan,  which  was  at  that  time  the  capital 
of  the  Empire.  After  some  hard  fighting  in  Shansi 
the  army  reached  the  Yellow  River.  From  some 
point  on  the  north  shore,  probably  very  near  to  the 
strip  of  sand  on  which  we  emerged  from  the  sunken 
road,  the  wild  Mongols  looked  on  Tung  Kwan. 
They  belonged  to  a  race  who  were  the  world-con- 
querors of  their  time,  but  they  realised  that  they 
could  not  pass  the  city  on  the  opposite  height.  The 
plan  of  a  direct  advance  on  Kai  Feng  was  abandoned, 
and  San-kau-pa-tu  made  a  long  detour  through  the 
mountains  of  Southern  Shensi.  His  men  were  so 
exhausted  by  the  difficulties  of  the  journey  that  be- 
fore reaching  the  capital,  they  were  easily  defeated 
and  driven  back  across  the  Yellow  River. 

No  one  who  sees  Tung  Kwan  to-day  can  won- 
der why  the  soldiers  of  Genghis  gave  up  the  idea  of 
taking  it.  Although  it  is  in  Shensi,  the  city  is  so 
close  to  the  boundaries  of  Honan  and  Shansi  that 
it  is  the  key  to  all  three  provinces.     The  only  ap- 

IIO 


TUNG   KWAN 

proach  to  the  huge  stone  citadel  is  a  broad  road 
that  winds  up  the  side  of  the  mountain  from  the 
water's  edge ;  on  one  side,  the  road  is  protected  by 
a  stone  wall,  and  on  the  other  by  a  series  of  stone 
forts.  The  business  portion  of  Tung  Kwan  is  be- 
low the  citadel,  on  the  Shensi  side  of  the  mountain. 
The  ferry  on  which  we  crossed  the  Yellow  River 
was  a  huge  scow  with  a  mast  at  one  end.  The  old 
sail  which  beat  against  it  was  furled  and  showed 
little  sign  of  use  ;  the  propelling  power  was  con- 
fined to  the  poles  and  oars  of  the  boatmen.  At 
first  sight  of  the  ferry  I  wondered  how  all  of  our 
belongings  could  be  dragged  aboard.  On  the  beach 
where  we  stood  there  was  no  pier  or  landing-place, 
and  to  force  our  cart  over  the  oozing  sand  appeared 
to  be  an  almost  impossible  task.  The  boatmen  laid 
planks  from  the  scow's  edge  to  the  shore,  and  up 
these  the  ponies  were  led.  Then  the  planks  were 
spread  to  meet  the  cart-wheels ;  a  boatman  got  be- 
tween the  shafts,  while  the  remainder  of  the  party, 
soldiers,  cartmen,  and  mafu  put  their  shoulders  to 
the  rear  of  the  cart,  and,  with  a  vast  amount  of 
shouting  and  shoving,  succeeded  in  forcing  it  up 
on  the  scow.  The  advent  of  our  party  left  so  very 
little  room  for  the  other  passengers  that  several  of 
them  were  compelled  to  seek  quarters  between  the 
ponies'  legs.  After  three-quarters  of  an  hour,  our 
cart,  ponies,  and  ourselves  were  unloaded  on  the 
Shensi  shore  and  were  led  through  the  principal 
street  of  the  town  to  our  kung  kwan. 

Ill 


THROUGH    HIDDEN   SHENSI 

Here  I  found  awaiting  me  a  little  man  with  a 
shiny,  smiling  face  and  small,  piercing  eyes.  He 
announced  that  he  was  a  Wei  Wen  of  the  governor 
of  Shensi,  and  displayed  His  Excellency's  card.  I 
subsequently  learned  that  a  Wei  Wen  is  a  petty 
mandarin,  detailed  on  a  special  commission  by  a 
provincial  governor  or  a  court-official  in  Pekin. 
The  duty  to  which  the  one  who  met  me  had  been 
assigned  was  to  officially  welcome  me  to  Shensi  and 
personally  to  conduct  me  to  Sian.  When  I  handed 
him  Prince  Ching's  card  he  touched  it  tenderly,  as 
though  afraid  of  injuring  so  precious  a  document. 
He  placed  it  on  the  table  in  front  of  him,  and  for 
some  minutes  contemplated  it  in  silence.  He  then 
made  a  short  speech,  in  which  he  told  me  of  his  un- 
bounded regard  for  me.  He  pressed  his  hands  on 
his  stomach  and  swore  by  Confucius  that  he  would 
protect  me  with  his  life.  He  was  so  effusive  in  his 
demonstrations  of  admiration  that  I  began  to  fear 
that  his  welcome  might  be  the  preface  to  another 
horse-trade,  but  nothing  of  the  kind  happened,  and 
I  found  during  the  four  days  in  which  the  Wei 
Wen  directed  my  travelling  affairs  that  he  was  a 
kindly,  harmless  man  whose  sole  object  in  life 
seemed  to  be  to  make  me  as  happy  as  a  barbarian 
could  be  in  Shensi. 

Carts  with  four  wheels  are  the  kind  most  in 
vogue  in  Tung  Kwan.  The  carts  do  not  have  axles, 
but  the  wheels  revolve  in  iron  hangers  suspended 
from  the  four  corners  of  the  waggon-box.     A  pref- 

112 


TUNG    KWAN 

erence  for  four  wheels  has  come  to  Tung  Kwan  from 
Honan,  where  a  two-wheeled  vehicle  is  seldom  seen. 
The  carts  I  saw  in  Tung  Kwan  are  an  object-lesson 
in  the  mistake  of  generalising  in  attempting  to  de- 
scribe anything  Chinese.  Customs  and  methods  vary- 
to  such  an  extent  in  different  parts  of  the  Empire 
that  a  sweeping  declaration  about  any  of  them  that 
might  be  true  when  confined  to  some  particular 
province  may  be  inaccurate  when  applied  to  the  one 
next  to  it.  I  had  been  told  by  a  foreign  resident 
of  Pekin  that  the  Chinese  mind  was  incapable  of  ad- 
vancing beyond  the  idea  of  two  wheels  on  a  vehicle. 
This  I  found  to  be  the  case  in  every  place  through 
which  we  passed,  with  the  exception  of  Tung 
Kwan,  but  the  exception  was  so  marked  that  it  dis- 
proved the  rule. 

Tung  Kwan  is  near  the  point  where  the  Yellow 
River  is  joined  by  the  Wei  Ho,  a  river  that  rises  in 
Kansuh,  not  far  from  the  Tibetan  border.  The 
road  from  Tung  Kwan  to  Sian  lies  across  a  plain, 
which  extends  from  the  Wei  Ho  on  the  north  to 
the  foot-hills  of  the  Shensi  Mountains  on  the  south. 
For  more  than  fifty  miles  the  road  is  lined  on  both 
sides  by  rows  of  willow-trees.  Their  planting  was 
an  incident  of  the  Mohammedan  rebellion  of  1868 

to  '7?>' 

The  people  of  the  Yellow  River  valleys  are  so 
far  out  of  what  we  call  "  the  world  "  that  some  of 
even  the  more  ponderous  histories  of  the  last  fifty 
years  in  China  make  only  scant  mention  of  this  war 

"3 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

that  devastated  three  provinces,  cost  thousands  of 
lives,  and  left  Shensi  helpless  and  desolate.  Because 
of  its  nearness  to  the  Mohammedan  countries  of  the 
west,  Shensi  numbers  among  its  inhabitants  more 
followers  of  the  Prophet  than  does  perhaps  any 
other  of  the  eighteen  provinces.  Although  their 
dress  and  language  are  the  same  as  those  of  the  peo- 
ple among  whom  they  live,  they  are  not  free  from 
the  religious  fanaticism  that  has  always  distinguished 
men  of  their  faith  everywhere.  Taking  advantage 
of  the  disordered  state  of  the  Empire  after  the 
Taiping  rebellion,  the  Mohammedans  of  Shensi  and 
Kansuh  rose  in  revolt  against  the  Chinese  Govern- 
ment. Their  apparent  object  was  to  place  a  fol- 
lower of  the  Prophet  on  the  dragon -throne.  They 
never  succeeded  in  accomplishing  much  south  of 
the  Wei  Ho,  but  north  of  it  town  after  town  fell  be- 
fore them  ;  and  men,  women,  and  children  were  put 
to  the  sword.  So  great  was  the  desolation  they 
wrought,  that  after  the  rebellion  had  been  finally 
suppressed,  there  were  not  enough  men  left  in 
Shensi  to  till  its  fields.  Immigrants  were  brought 
from  other  provinces  by  the  Government  to  re- 
populate  the  desert  left  by  the  war. 

One  of  the  curious  results  of  the  Mohammedan 
uprising  was  the  large  number  of  nominal  conver- 
sions that  it  was  the  means  of  making  to  Chris- 
tianity. "  Do  you  believe  in  Allah  or  the  idols?" 
was  the  question  the  rebels  asked  of  their  prisoners. 
If  they  answered  that  they  worshipped  the   idols 

114 


TUNG    KWAN 

they  were  immediately  put  to  death,  but  their  pro- 
fession of  a  belief  in  Allah  usually  meant  only  a 
brief  respite  from  the  same  fate,  because  the  next 
detachment  of  Imperialist  troops  that  passed  that 
way  was  sure  to  kill  all  apostates  from  the  religions 
of  Confucius  or  Buddha.  In  their  dilemma,  hun- 
dreds of  wretched  men  and  women  professed  belief 
in  the  Christians'  God,  whom  the  Mohammedans 
did  not  deny  and  whose  worshippers  the  Govern- 
ment was  not  then  persecuting.  After  eight  years 
of  most  sanguinary  warfare  Tso  Kung  Pao,  com- 
mander of  the  Imperialist  forces,  was  finally  able  to 
put  down  the  rebellion.  In  his  campaigns  Tso  was 
often  greatly  hampered  by  lack  of  food  and  money, 
as  the  funds  in  the  Imperial  treasury  had  been  sadly 
depleted.  For  an  entire  year  he  turned  his  soldiers 
into  farmers,  and  thus  provided  a  sufficient  commis- 
sariat to  enable  him  to  continue  the  war.  On  one 
occasion,  when  his  men  were  striking  for  back-pay, 
he  made  them  forget  their  grievances  in  hard  work  ; 
he  kept  his  entire  army  busy  in  planting  the  willow- 
trees  that  now  shade  the  white,  dusty  road  from 
Tung  Kwan  to  Sian. 

Fifty  miles  west  of  Tung  Kwan,  at  the  base  of 
the  mountain  of  Hua  Shan,  is  the  temple  of  Hua  ih. 
China  has  five  sacred  mountains,  and  Hua  Shan  is 
one  of  them.  The  other  four  are  Tai  in  Shantung, 
Heng  in  Hunan,  Hang  in  Shansi,  and  Sung  in 
Honan.  The  adoration  of  the  mountains  is  a  sur- 
vival, in  a  decadent  form,  of  the  monotheism  of  early 

115 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

China.  There  was  a  time,  obscured  by  the  dim 
myths  of  their  history,  when  the  religion  of  the 
Black  Haired  People  was  not  unlike  that  of  the 
Hebrew  Patriarchs.  It  was  then  that  they  wor- 
shipped Shang  Ti,  the  supreme  ruler  of  Heaven, 
who  was  an  unseen  deity,  not  represented  by  idols, 
and  never  manifested  in  rocks  or  trees.  Once  a 
year  the  kings  offered  sacrifices  to  him  on  one  of 
the  five  mountains  that  have  since  become  sacred. 
Why  these  should  have  been  selected  from  all  the 
mountains  of  the  empire,  is  a  question  not  easy  to 
determine.  Three  of  the  five  are  comparatively  near 
Sian.  In  the  course  of  centuries  the  worship  of 
Shang  Ti  became  the  exclusive  prerogative  of  the 
Emperor,  on  the  theory  that  he  alone  was  worthy 
to  address  the  Supreme  Being,  although  a  reaction- 
ary tendency  to  revert  to  the  universal  worship  of 
Shang  Ti  has  more  than  once  manifested  itself.  In 
A.D.  625,  for  example,  Kau  Tsu,  an  emperor  of  the 
T'ang  dynasty,  disgusted  with  the  corruption  of  the 
Buddhist  priests,  issued  an  edict  permitting  his  sub- 
jects to  erect  altars  to  the  ruler  of  Heaven.* 

Emperors  of  China  still  worship  Shang  Ti  once 
a  year,  but  no  longer  on  the  mountain-tops.  "  The 
Temple  of  Heaven,"  in  the  southern  part  of  Pekin, 
is  used  for  that  purpose  by  the  present  dynasty.  As 
a  substitute  for  the  worship  of  the  One  Supreme 
God,  no  longer  permitted  to  them,  the  people  of 
China  turned   to  an  adoration   of  the   five  sacred 

*  MacGowan's  History  of  China,  page  290. 
116 


TUNG   KWAN 

mountains  where  once  had  been  "  worshipped  the 
Father."  They  are  visited  every  year  by  thousands 
of  pilgrims  from  all  over  the  empire.  To  defray 
travelling  expenses,  co-operative  societies  are  formed 
in  the  various  provinces,  and  the  men  of  several  ad- 
jacent villages  make  up  a  special  excursion  party,  by 
which  the  cost  of  the  pilgrimage  is  paid  from  a  com- 
mon fund.  Many  of  the  larger  cities,  too,  contain 
temples  dedicated  to  the  Five  Sacred  Mountains. 
The  adoration  of  the  mountains  is  entirely  outside  of 
and  beyond  the  three  prevailing  religious  systems. 
In  the  long  procession  of  pilgrims  who  toil  wearily 
up  the  mountain-trails  are  an  equal  proportion  of 
Confucians,  Buddhists,  and  Taoists.  The  temples 
at  the  base  and  summit  where  they  leave  their 
offerings  of  cash-strings  are  not  materially  different 
from  thousands  of  other  places  of  worship  scat- 
tered all  over  the  empire.  They  contain  only  idols 
and  tablets,  but  their  especial  merit  is  the  fact  of 
their  nearness  to  the  cloud-capped  mountain-peaks. 
It  is  difficult  to  obtain  from  a  Chinaman  a  satis- 
factory explanation  of  the  motive  which  prompts 
him  to  walk  hundreds  of  miles  to  worship  on  a 
mountain-top.  About  all  he  will  admit  on  the  sub- 
ject is  that  the  "mountain  is  a  good  thing,"  and, 
after  all,  this  answer  is  not  very  far  from  the  truth. 
Outside  of  China,  one  hears  little  of  the  sacred 
mountains.  References  to  them  in  descriptions  of 
the  land  and  the  people  which  come  to  us  are  not 
nearly  so  frequent  as  to  "  idolaters"  and  "  Boxers." 

"7 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

The  sacred  mountain-top  is  an  intermediary  between 
the  dusty  plain  with  its  idols  and  its  sorrows,  and 
the  sky  which  is  the  abiding-place  of  the  Eternal. 
In  his  soul-groping,  the  Chinaman  gropes  upward. 

The  present  temple,  or  rather  the  series  of  tem- 
ples within  the  inclosure  at  Hua  ih,  are  said  to  have 
been  built  by  the  Emperor  Kang  Hi  about  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years  ago.  In  their  arrangement 
there  is  a  strange  commingling  of  the  Confucian 
and  Buddhist  faiths.  A  silent  menagerie  fills  the 
front  of  the  temple-yard.  In  rows  of  heavily  barred 
brick  cages  are  stone  images  of  animals.  They 
are  all  life-size  and  are  remarkably  well  executed. 
Among  them  are  elephants,  tigers,  and  monkeys, 
whose  sculptors  must  have  secured  their  models  a 
long  distance  from  Shensi,  where  the  originals  are  not 
found.  The  stone  animals  stand  for  the  Buddhist 
idea  of  reincarnation.  They  are  worshipped  as  sa- 
cred, and  are  supposed,  in  a  vague  way,  to  be  en- 
dowed with  life.  It  is  to  prevent  them  from  escap- 
ing and  running  away  from  their  worshippers  that 
the  cages  have  wooden  bars  in  front  of  them.  The 
priest,  who  acted  as  my  guide,  explained  that  each 
supplicant  selects  an  animal  to  which  he  addresses 
his  prayers.  If  they  are  not  answered  within  a  rea- 
sonable time,  he  tries  the  same  prayers  on  another 
image,  in  the  hope  that  its  stone  heart  may  prove 
less  hard  than  the  first. 

But  to  me  the  most  curious  thing  about  the 
stone  animals  was  their  position   directly  in  front 

ii8 


PLAN    OF    Till-:    THMl'IJ-:    Al'     lU'A     Hi. 


TUNG   KWAN 

of  a  Confucian  temple,  whose  only  sacred  object  was 
a  tablet  of  the  sage  to  whom  it  was  dedicated.  From 
prostrating  themselves  before  stone  dogs  and  horses, 
the  temple  pilgrims  turned  to  this  shrine  of  the 
greatest  atheist  the  w  orld  has  ever  known.  A  stone 
walk  led  to  the  rear  of  the  inclosure,  where  was  a 
Buddhist  temple,  four  stories  high,  filled  with  idols. 
In  its  construction,  this  temple,  like  many  of  the 
larger  buildings  of  China,  showed  a  knowledge  of 
the  principles  which  have  made  twenty-story  build- 
ings possible  in  the  United  States.  The  roof  and 
floors  of  the  temple  rested  upon  cross-beams  attached 
to  upright  poles,  the  ends  of  which  were  sunk  in 
piers  of  cement  embedded  in  the  ground.  In  Shensi, 
as  in  New  York,  walls  are  an  afterthought.  The 
skeleton  of  such  a  building  as  the  temple  is  always 
practically  completed  before  the  work  of  inclosing 
it  with  walls  is  begun. 

Between  the  two  temples  was  a  pond  where  fish 
were  fonged,  or  set  at  liberty.  In  its  workings  the 
system  of  fonging  animals  has  very  much  the  effect 
of  a  humane  society  on  the  western  side  of  the  world. 
On  the  theory  that  any  of  the  brute  creation  may  be 
the  dwelling-place  of  the  soul  of  a  former  human 
being,  lame  and  sick  animals  become  the  care  of  the 
priests  ;  in  some  of  the  larger  temples  special  pro- 
vision is  made  for  caring  for  sick  cats  and  dogs.  To 
fong  an  animal  of  any  kind  is  considered  an  act  of 
supreme  virtue.  To  obtain  good  luck,  a  pious 
Chinaman  will  sometimes  purchase  a  live  fish  and 

119 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

have  a  priest  fong  it.  This  is  done  by  placing  it  in 
the  pond  reserved  for  the  purpose  near  the  temple. 
One  of  the  principal  sources  of  revenue  to  the 
priests  of  Hua  ih  is  the  sale  of  rubbings  of  the  in- 
scriptions on  the  stone  tablets  scattered  throughout 
the  grounds.  These  are  purchased  by  pilgrims,  who 
hang  them  on  the  walls  of  their  homes  as  a  means 
of  keeping  away  evil  spirits. 

We  left  Hua  ih  in  a  pouring  rain,  the  first  I  had 
encountered  anywhere  on  my  travels.  During  the 
next  twenty-four  hours  I  had  an  opportunity  of 
seeing  what  Shensi  skies  can  do,  on  the  very  rare 
occasions  when  their  flood-gates  are  opened.  With- 
in half  an  hour  after  the  beginning  of  the  storm 
our  party  was  drenched  and  drooping.  The  dusty 
road  of  an  hour  before  was  transformed  into  a 
morass,  through  which  the  cart  struggled,  hub-deep 
in  mud,  and  in  which  our  ponies,  with  lowered 
heads,  slipped  and  floundered.  Little  rivulets  ran 
down  the  backs  of  the  soldiers'  tunics,  causing  the 
red  and  purple  to  blend  until  they  looked  as  though 
they  were  made  of  watered  silk ;  queues  became 
dishevelled  and  turbans  limp  as  the  rain  soaked  and 
penetrated.  Our  objective  point  as  the  end  of  the 
day's  journey  was  the  city  of  Hua,  but  the  condition 
of  the  road  prevented  our  reaching  it  before  dark- 
ness set  in.  We  were  compelled  to  spend  the  night 
in  a  wretched  little  inn  in  the  village  of  Fu  Shin, 
about  ten  miles  from  Hua.  The  paper  pane  of  the 
one  window  in  my  room  was  full  of  holes,  through 

I20 


BUDDHIST    TEMI'LK    AT    IIIA    III. 


TUNG    KWAN 

which  the  rain  poured  in  torrents.  I  called  the 
landlord's  attention  to  it,  and  he  promised  to  have 
the  window  repaired.  A  dirty  boy  carrying  a  saucer 
of  flour-paste  presently  emerged  from  the  group  of 
dripping  mules  and  horses  huddled  in  the  centre  of 
the  yard.  He  began  to  paste  scraps  of  paper  of  all 
sizes  and  shapes  over  the  holes  in  the  pane,  giving 
it  much  the  appearance  of  a  New  England  crazy- 
quilt.  When  I  asked  him  why  he  did  not  tear  off 
the  entire  tattered  sheet  of  paper  and  replace  it  with 
a  new  one,  he  replied  "  My  labor  is  by  the  day,  but 
paper  costs  two  cash."  As  Wang  translated  this 
epigram,  he  thrust  the  crop  of  his  riding-whip 
through  the  paper  pane  and  tore  it  down.  The  boy 
ambled  off  grumbling  at  the  enforced  extravagance, 
while  Wang  said,  "The  Shensi  mens  is  different 
from  Pekin." 


121 


CHAPTER    X 

SHENSI— THE    OLD   RACE 

WHENCE  the  first  Chinese  came  is  a  happy, 
little,  hazy  problem,  about  which  many  his- 
torians and  ethnologists  have  guessed  and  disputed, 
but  which  none  have  solved.  But,  whatever  may 
have  been  their  starting  point,  the  Chinese  were 
first  heard  from  in  the  Shensi  valleys,  through 
which  the  Yellow  River  winds,  from  Mongolia  to 
its  junction  with  the  Wei  Ho.  It  was  out  of  the 
Yellow  River  that  the  original  dragon  brought  to 
Fuhi  the  scroll  on  which  were  engraved  the  marks 
of  "  the  eight  permutations,"  from  which  have  been 
developed  the  alphabet  of  China  and  its  systems  of 
philosophy.  Fuhi  belongs  to  the  period  of  legends. 
According  to  Chinese  traditions,  all  law  and  gov- 
ernment began  with  him.  He  was  born  ten  miles 
from  Sian,  and  he  is  said  to  have  begun  his  reign  as 
first  ruler  of  China  in  the  year  2852  e.g.,  or  forty- 
seven  years  before  the  biblical  date  of  the  death  of 
Noah.*  The  direct  descendants  of  Fuhi's  subjects 
live  south  of  the  Wei  Ho  to-day.  Internal  wars 
and  foreign  invasions  have  modified  and  partially 
obliterated  the  original   race   in   Northern   Shensi, 

*  According  to  Professor  Legge,  the  date  of  Fuhi's  accession  was  3322  B.C. 


SHENSI— THE    OLD    RACE 

but  they  never  have  been  supplanted  in  the  country 
between  the  Wei  Ho  and  the  Han.  The  men  of 
Southern  Shensi,  of  the  old  blood,  constitute 
another  of  the  distinct  types  of  China.  Their  skins 
are  yellow,  but  never  sallow.  Exposure  to  the  sun 
has  a  tendency  to  turn  Shensi  complexions  red. 
This  fact,  in  addition  to  their  high  cheek-bones  and 
straight  features,  gives  to  many  of  the  dwellers  in 
the  villages  the  appearance  of  North  American 
Indians. 

More  than  any  other  Chinese  I  have  ever  met, 
the  men  of  Shensi  are  philosophical  and  thoughtful ; 
combined  with  the  practical  element  so  noticeable 
in  all  Chinese  character,  they  have  a  love  of  learn- 
ing and  a  refined  sense  of  justice  that  I  have  found 
nowhere  else  in  the  Empire.  They  know  their 
heritage  and  they  are  proud  of  it.  They  are  fond 
of  telling  of  the  events  of  Fuhi's  time  as  though 
they  had  happened  yesterday.  In  speaking  of 
their  country's  history,  they  seldom  refer  to  the 
occurrences  of  the  last  fifteen  hundred  years.  To 
them  Mongol  conquerors  are  moderns,  in  whom 
they  take  little  interest.  The  inhabitants  of  the 
province  of  Shensi  belong  to  the  old  families. 
Only  occasionally  do  they  refer  to  themselves  as 
"Chinese."  They  much  more  frequently  use  as 
their  prerogative  the  term  Sons  of  Han,  by  which 
they  commemorate  the  days  of  Shensi's  glory,  when 
the  first  Han  dynasty  held  sway  in  Sian,  two  cen- 
turies  before  Christ.     The   Sons   of    Han  are  in- 

123 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

clined  to  patronise  the  inhabitants  of  other  and 
"  newer"  parts  of  the  Empire.  The  Pekinese  may 
dress  better  and  may  belong  to  the  smart  set  at 
court,  but  they  have  been  Chinese  for  only  a  thou- 
sand years ;  they  lack  culture ;  they  are  hopelessly 
new. 

For  Chinese  in  Shanghai  and  Hankow  who 
have  grown  rich  by  trading  with  foreigners,  there  is 
as  much  courteous  condescension  in  Shensi  as  was 
ever  expressed  on  Beacon  Street  for  Monanta  mil- 
lionaires. Because  Pekin  is  the  capital  and  the 
residence  of  the  court,  the  dialect  spoken  by  its 
citizens  approaches  more  nearly  to  the  official  lan- 
guage than  does  any  other  vernacular  of  the  Em- 
pire. It  is  the  boast  of  the  Pekinese  that,  in  their 
city,  "beggars  can  speak  mandarin."  But  in  Fuhi's 
country  the  Pekinese  dialect  finds  little  favour.  It 
is  provincial  and  very  bad  form.  It  is  to  be  used 
in  addressing  a  government  official  but  not  by  gen- 
tlemen in  conversation.  "  We  speak  pure  Chinese," 
an  old  scholar  explained  to  me  in  Sian  ;  "  we  do 
not  pronounce  as  Tartars  do." 

Even  to  my  ignorant  ears,  the  difference  in 
dialect  was  noticeable  after  leaving  Tung  Kwan. 
The  sound  of  aspirated  s  seemed  to  have  been  lost 
in  the  Yellow  River ;  in  its  place  was  a  persistent 
cA,  which  played  a  prominent  part  in  every  sen- 
tence. The  capital  of  Shensi  was  no  longer  Sian 
but  "  Chian,"  with  the  accent  falling  heavily  on  the 
last  syllable.     As    might  naturally  be  expected  in 

124 


SHENSI— THE    OLD    RACE 

the  oldest  province  of  China,  keen  dislike  of  the 
foreigner  is  a  characteristic  of  the  Sons  of  Han. 
But,  with  all  their  prejudices  and  exclusiveness, 
they  have  little  of  the  fanaticism  and  cruelty  which 
are  to  be  found  in  some  of  the  other  provinces. 
The  foreigner  is  a  barbarian  and  something  of  a 
fool.  He  should  never  be  allowed  to  forget  that  he 
is  an  inferior,  and  anything  that  he  may  say  or  do  is 
worthy  of  the  scorn  and  contempt  of  sensible  men. 
But,  after  all,  why  should  he  be  taken  seriously 
enough  to  be  regarded  as  an  enemy.  To  persecute 
him  is  only  to  dignify  him.  He  is  harmless  though 
detestable.  Let  the  dog  continue  to  bark  at  the 
moon.  Shensi  has  seen  many  tribes  of  barbarians 
come  and  go  since  Fuhi's  time  and  they  all  have 
ultimately  disappeared  in  the  sea  of  Chinese  civili- 
sation. Just  give  these  modern  barbarians  with 
short  coats  time  enough  and  they,  too,  will  share 
the  same  fate. 

From  what  I  have  seen  of  Shensi  character,  I 
believe  that  it  was  the  prevailing  of  this  sentiment 
which  prevented  the  bloodshed  and  murder  that 
marked  the  Boxer  uprising  in  adjacent  provinces. 
At  the  outbreak  of  the  storm,  Tuan  Fang  was  gov- 
ernor of  Shensi.  He  was  a  Manchu  and  a  relative 
of  Prince  Tuan,  the  bloodthirsty  leader  of  the  anti- 
foreign  party  at  court.  Along  with  all  the  other 
governors,  Tuan  received  the  Imperial  order  to  ex- 
terminate all  foreigners  within  his  province.  Boxer 
sympathisers  in    Pekin   warned  him  that  his  head 

125 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

would  be  the  forfeit  if  he  disobeyed  the  order.  But 
against  this  was  the  advice  of  the  best  men  among 
the  conservative,  tradition-clinging  people  over 
whom  he  ruled.  They  reminded  him  that  to  kill 
the  foreign  missionaries  would  be  murder,  and  that 
if  he,  a  Confucian,  were  guilty  of  that  crime  an  in- 
delible stain  would  rest  upon  Shensi.  Their  advice 
prevailed  and,  with  superb  moral  courage,  Tuan 
Fang  resolved  to  save  the  lives  of  the  missionaries, 
even  at  the  jeopardy  of  his  own.  He  assembled  the 
missionaries  in  Sian  and  sent  them  in  detachments, 
under  a  large  armed  escort,  out  of  the  province  to  a 
place  of  safety  on  the  road  to  Hankow.  In  the 
suddenness  of  their  enforced  departure,  some  of 
the  missionaries  were  without  money  for  travelling 
expenses.  For  these  Tuan  Fang  provided  from  his 
own  funds.  He  is  now  governor  of  the  province 
of  Hupeh  and  is  regarded  by  all  foreigners  in 
China  as  a  hero,  and  the  noblest  living  Manchu. 
Such  he  undoubtedly  is,  but  it  is  questionable 
whether  he  would  ever  have  dared  to  defy  the 
command  of  the  Manchu  Government  had  he  not 
received  the  moral  support  of  the  people  of  the  old 
land,  that  was  in  its  zenith  when  the  Manchus  were 
only  a  tribe  in  the  northern  wilderness. 

A  Shensi  village  seldom  consists  of  more 
than  two  hundred  inhabitants,  or  forty  families, 
according  to  Chinese  methods  of  estimating.  The 
only  person  in  the  entire  community  possessed  of 
any  authority  is  the  "  head  man,"  who  is  appointed 

126 


SHENSI— THE    OLD    RACE 

by  the  mandarin  of  the  district.  The  head  man 
carries  no  badge  of  authority,  but  is  simply  a  farmer, 
like  the  rest  of  the  villagers.  His  appointment  to 
office  is  usually  the  result  of  his  popularity  with  his 
neighbours,  who  have  informed  the  mandarin  of 
his  especial  intelligence  and  virtues.  I  had  always 
supposed  that,  under  the  absolute  despotism  of  the 
Chinese  Government,  very  little  liberty  of  speech 
or  thought  was  permitted  to  its  subjects,  but  I  found 
that  in  Shensi  quite  the  reverse  is  the  case.  In  no 
village  is  such  a  thing  as  a  policeman  to  be  found. 
On  the  very  rare  occasions  when  an  arrest  is  to  be 
made,  the  head  man  notifies  the  Shen  Mandarin, 
who  sends  one  of  his  servants  for  the  purpose.  The 
villagers  seldom  give  anyone  cause  for  trouble,  and, 
as  a  result,  they  are  most  of  the  time  let  alone. 

They  discuss  the  topics  of  the  day,  talk  politics, 
and  gossip  about  each  other's  affairs  quite  as  much 
as  is  the  custom  in  the  United  States.  In  Shensi  a 
tea-house  takes  the  place  of  the  American  saloon  or 
country  store  as  a  rendezvous  and  lounging-place. 
A  cup  of  tea  sometimes  costs  ten  cash  (a  little  less 
than  a  cent),  an  exorbitant  price,  which  makes  it  a 
luxury,  but  a  cup  of  hot  water  for  two  cash  is  a  pop- 
ular drink  within  the  means  of  almost  everyone. 
Over  these  cups  of  hot  water  radical  and  conservative 
politics,  the  faults  and  merits  of  the  Empress  Dow- 
ager, and  the  doings  of  the  "  barbarians"  are  freely 
discussed  along  with  quotations  from  the  "  analects  " 
and  the  condition  of  the  crops.     So  long  as  a  man 

127 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

does  not  avow  an  intention  of  starting  a  rebellion, 
he  can  believe  and  say  what  he  pleases  in  Shensi 
without  any  more  fear  of  Government  interference 
than  in  New  York.  In  fact,  I  found  that  whenever 
anyone  wished  to  impress  me  with  a  sense  of  his 
superior  learning  and  ability,  he  invariably  com- 
mented upon  the  affairs  of  the  Empire.  Nor  are  the 
inhabitants  of  Shensi  villages  so  completely  without 
news  of  the  outer  world  as  we  are  apt  to  suppose. 
The  Imperial  edicts  are  made  public  by  the  man- 
darins, and  the  news  they  contain  filters  down 
through  the  head  men  to  the  villagers.  It  was 
really  exceptional  for  me  to  find  a  banchaiti  who  did 
not  greet  me  in  the  morning  with  the  news  of  the 
day,  and  give  me  his  opinion  about  it.  The  ban- 
chaiti of  the  kung  kwan  of  a  little  town  in  Shensi 
was  the  medium  through  which  I  learned  of  the 
death  of  Li  Hung  Chang.  "  He  was  a  clever  man," 
said  my  informant.  *'  He  made  much  money  out 
of  China,  but  there  are  others  just  as  clever." 

In  Shensi  there  is  a  complete  absence  of  the 
condition  that  we  call  "poverty."  Although,  rela- 
tively speaking,  in  comparison  with  the  income  of 
the  poorest-paid  day-labourer  in  the  United  States, 
all  Shensi  villagers  must  be  accounted  poor.  The 
equivalent  of  twenty  American  cents  is  very  good 
pay  for  a  day's  work  in  Shensi,  but  much  less  than 
that  sum  is  sufficient  to  provide  for  the  needs  of  a 
family.  In  an  entire  village  there  may  be  no  house 
built  of  other  material  than  mud,  but  as  every  fam- 

128 


SHENSI— THE   OLD    RACE 

ily  owns  a  home  of  this  kind,  and,  as  no  one  in 
the  entire  community  lives  in  a  better  house,  there 
is  no  annoying  yearning  after  "  higher  and  better 
things."  By  Shensi  roadsides  one  finds  some  pro- 
fessional beggars,  most  of  whom  are  opium-victims, 
but  there  are  very  few  "  unemployed,"  except  as  the 
result  of  a  universal  calamity  like  a  famine  or  a  flood. 
Shensi  farms  seldom  contain  more  than  three  or  four 
acres,  but  they  often  remain  in  the  possession  of  one 
family  for  generations.  No  one  ever  seems  to  de- 
sire more  land  or  to  hold  it  solely  for  the  purpose  of 
selling  it  again.  The  members  of  each  family  till 
their  own  plot  of  ground,  and  from  it  raise  enough 
food  to  supply  their  needs.  When  the  father  be- 
comes too  old  or  infirm  to  work,  his  sons  continue 
to  sow  and  reap  in  the  same  field,  and  their  children 
follow  in  their  footsteps. 

Only  a  few  of  the  larger  villages  have  shops  of 
any  description.  Almost  everything  that  the  vil- 
lagers use  they  make  themselves.  The  care  of  the 
cotton-crop  is  the  especial  province  of  the  women. 
They  pick  the  raw  cotton,  spin  it  into  thread,  weave 
and  dye  the  cloth,  and  make  the  clothes  of  the  en- 
tire family.  The  Chinese  system  of  land  and  agri- 
culture has  been  described  as  Utopian  by  some 
Western  writers  on  sociology.  From  what  I  saw  of 
it,  as  exemplified  in  Shensi,  I  am  led  to  believe  that 
while  it  has  some  points  in  its  favour,  it  is  also  pos- 
sessed of  decided  disadvantages,  which  have  con- 
tributed to  the   present  helpless  condition   of  the 

129 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

country.  It  enables  the  huge  agricultural  popula- 
tion of  the  empire  to  live  and  multiply.  It  so  limits 
competition  that  it  is  hardly  possible  for  any  man 
to  be  much  richer  than  his  fellows.  It  prevents 
both  idleness  and  over-production  by  providing 
every  man  with  a  place  where,  by  his  own  labour, 
he  can  produce  only  enough  for  his  own  needs. 

As  a  result  of  it,  the  Sons  of  Han  all  work 
hard  and  are  contented,  but  they  have  little  ambi- 
tion and  a  horror  of  change.  The  system  offers  no 
incentive  to  a  man  who  may  be  disposed  "  to  toil 
upward  in  the  night  while  his  companions  sleep," 
although  there  is  no  danger  of  the  jealousy  of 
"  companions  "  who  preferred  to  stay  in  bed.  The 
system  makes  provision  only  for  agriculture,  and  is, 
in  consequence,  a  bar  to  the  undertaking  of  other 
industries,  without  which  the  vast  resources  of 
China  can  never  be  developed.  If  a  large  manufac- 
tory, for  example,  were  to  be  started  anywhere  in 
Southern  Shensi  some  of  the  small  farms  would 
have  to  be  appropriated  for  its  site.  The  owners  of 
the  land  could  not  find  employment  in  the  factory, 
because  they  would  have  no  knowledge  of  any  other 
trade  than  farming.  They  would  consequently  be 
deprived  of  the  means  of  earning  a  livelihood,  and 
the  entire  economic  conditions  of  the  community  in 
which  they  live  would  be  disturbed. 

The  Sons  of  Han  are  very  dirty,  and  so  are 
their  families  and  their  homes.  It  is  hardly  an  ex- 
aggeration to  say  that  the)^  never  bathe.     For  the 

130 


SHENSI— THE    OLD    RACE 

purpose  of  preserving  clothes  the  women,  at  rare 
intervals,  soak  the  family  garments  in  a  running 
stream  and  then  beat  them  with  a  stick.  As  part  of 
a  course  of  medical  treatment,  a  Chinese  physician 
will  sometimes  prescribe  a  bath  for  a  patient. 
These  were  the  only  two  washing  processes  that  I 
was  able  to  discover  in  Southern  Shensi.  Prejudice 
against  the  external  use  of  water  is  second  only  to 
dislike  of  the  foreigner.  Soap  is  unknown,  nor  can 
its  introduction  be  expected  for  many  years  to  come. 
Shensi  boys  never  "go  in  swimming."  No  matter 
how  near  they  may  live  to  a  river  they  never  get  into 
it.  Boatmen  and  ferrymen  are  sometimes  compelled 
to  wade  in  a  stream  in  order  to  push  their  boat  when 
it  runs  aground,  but  they  always  carefully  avoid  an 
immersion.  But  the  objection  to  the  external  ap- 
plication of  water  does  not  lessen  its  popularity  as  a 
beverage.  All  over  Shensi  the  raw  whiskey  called, 
in  pigeon  English,  samshaw,  is  distilled  from  a 
kind  of  wild  corn.  There  is  no  tax  on  its  manu- 
facture, and  it  can  be  obtained  everywhere  for  a 
trifling  sum.  Besides  samshaw,  a  cordial  made 
from  rice  is  sold  in  the  larger  towns.  But  the  Sons 
of  Han  drink  liquor  very  sparingly.  Drunkenness 
is  almost  unknown.  Missionaries  who  have  lived 
for  years  in  Shensi  have  told  me  that  they  have 
never  heard  of  anyone  drinking  to  excess. 

Their  temperance  is  all  the  more  to  the  credit 
of  the  people  of  Shensi  because  good  drinking-water 
is  so  hard  to  obtain.     It  is  perhaps  because  the  soil 

131 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

has  been  constantly  fertilised  for  centuries  that  the 
well-water  is  murky  and  brackish.  No  one  re- 
gards it  as  fit  to  drink  in  the  condition  in  which  it 
comes  from  the  ground.  It  must  first  be  boiled. 
For  this  purpose,  in  the  front  yard  of  almost  every 
house,  a  charcoal  fire  is  kept  constantly  burning 
under  a  kettle  filled  with  water,  which  is  never 
allowed  to  cool,  but  is  always  drunk  hot,  just  as  it 
comes  from  the  kettle.  After  I  had  become  accus- 
tomed to  draughts  of  boiling  water  I  found  them 
quite  as  refreshing  as  any  ice-water  I  had  ever 
tasted  on  the  other  side  of  the  world.  But  if  there 
is  no  liquor-slavery  in  Shensi,  the  opium-curse  more 
than  takes  its  place.  Begging  by  the  road-side, 
sleeping  under  the  shadow  of  the  houses,  or  moping 
idly  on  the  benches  of  the  tea-houses,  are  found  the 
victims  of  the  blight  on  the  land.  They  are  always 
distinguished  by  their  sallowness  and  their  rags. 

To  me,  the  children  of  Shensi  were  always 
charming.  The  universal  love  of  children  for  par- 
ents and  parents  for  children  is  the  most  beautiful 
trait  in  the  character  of  the  old  race.  The  one  thing 
for  which  the  people  of  Shensi  seem  to  live  is  their 
children.  In  many  of  the  monotonous  lives  spent 
in  sowing  and  reaping  the  old  fields,  children  are  the 
only  light  and  joy.  Ride  into  any  Shensi  village 
about  sunset  on  a  summer  evening  and  you  will  see 
a  father  and  mother  in  front  of  their  mud  house 
with  their  four  or  five  little  boys  and  girls  about 
them,  playing,  romping,  and  all  laughing  and  happy 

132 


SHENSI— THE    OLD    RACE 

together.  A  man  of  Shensi  looks  upon  his  child  as 
his  companion,  and  likes  to  have  it  with  him  at  all 
times.  In  meeting  a  farmer  on  his  way  to  market, 
it  is  not  at  all  unusual  to  find  that  one  of  his  baskets 
contains  his  five-year-old  child,  whose  weight  balances 
the  load  of  farm-produce  that  swings  from  the  other 
end  of  the  stick  on  his  shoulders.  Only  on  very 
rare  occasions  are  Shensi  children  punished  or  dis- 
ciplined, and,  so  far  as  I  could  see,  they  seldom 
needed  it.  From  their  earliest  infancy  they  regard 
their  parents  as  their  best  friends.  As  they  grow 
older  they  seem  to  really  enjoy  "  honouring  their 
fathers  and  their  mothers"  to  a  degree  that  cannot 
be  explained  by  the  existence  of  laws  making  filial 
piety  obligatory.  The  prominent  place  given  to 
filial  piety  in  Chinese  law  and  religion  is,  I  be- 
lieve, founded  on  a  natural  and  reciprocal  love  and  re- 
spect for  children  and  parents,  which  is  the  peculiar 
glory  of  their  "heathen"  civilisation. 

Unlike  some  children  who  work  in  sweat-shops 
and  live  in  tenement-houses  in  Christian  cities, 
Shensi  children  are  strong  and  healthy.  Their  com- 
plexions are  ruddy  and  their  eyes  bright.  They 
laugh  and  have  the  joy  of  living  that  is  a  child's 
right.  They  have  a  simple,  trusting  manner  with 
strangers.  In  the  democracy  of  childhood  they  have 
not  yet  acquired  the  mistrust  of  foreigners  that 
comes  with  maturer  years.  They  cuddle  up  to  the 
traveller  from  the  West,  as  he  rests  in  a  tea-house, 
and  prattle  to  him  with  at  least  the  appearance  of 

^33 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

being  keenly  disappointed  at  his  inability  to  under- 
stand them.  They  are  natural  and  never  nervous 
or  '*  spoiled,"  although  they  certainly  are  not  "  well 
brought  up."  Suspended  by  a  cord  around  his  neck 
a  Shensi  child  wears  a  padlock,  that  is  supposed  to 
lock  his  soul  within  his  body  so  securely  that  it  can- 
not be  stolen  by  evil  spirits.  A  child  is  very  proud 
of  his  padlock,  and  always  holds  it  up  for  your  ad- 
miration as  soon  as  he  makes  your  acquaintance. 
Although  a  child's  name  is  always  taken  from  the 
"  book  of  surnames,"  his  parents  seldom  use  it  in 
addressing  him.  They  much  more  often  call  him 
by  the  name  of  some  lower  animal  like  "  toad  "  or 
*'  pig."  This,  too,  is  to  foil  the  evil  spirits,  who  in 
their  search  for  children's  souls,  will  not  be  so  readily 
attracted  to  a  child  called  "  toad,"  as  they  would  be 
to  one  addressed  by  his  real  name.  Almost  from 
the  time  a  Shensi  boy  can  walk,  the  top  of  his  head 
is  shaved,  and  only  a  small  tuft  of  hair  is  left  as  a 
foundation  for  a  queue. 

A  girl  is  allowed  to  play  about  with  the  boys 
and  to  have  quite  as  good  a  time  as  her  brothers 
until  she  is  about  eight  years  old.  At  that  age  the 
awful  process  of  foot-binding  begins,  and  five  or 
six  years  are  needed  to  render  her  feet  hopelessly 
misshapen  for  life.  By  the  time  this  is  accom- 
plished she  is  regarded  as  a  woman,  and  is  not  al- 
lowed to  leave  her  home.  In  Pekin  and  other 
cities  where  the  Manchu  influence  predominates 
there  is  a  slight  tendency  to  abandon  the  cruelties 

134 


A    LITTLE   SON    OF    HAN. 


BV    A    SHENSI    ROADSIDE. 


SHENSI— THE    OLD    RACE 

of  foot-binding,  but  in  Shensi  the  custom  is  uni- 
versal. For  a  woman  not  to  have  her  feet  bound 
and  misshapen  is  almost  a  disgrace  which  might 
prevent  her  marrying  and  would  certainly  result  in 
her  being  looked  upon  as  "peculiar"  to  an  extent 
that  would  make  her  the  object  of  dislike  and  ridi- 
cule in  the  village  where  she  lived.  It  is  to  be 
hoped  that  this,  the  most  barbarous  of  all  Chinese 
customs,  will  some  day  be  abolished  by  law,  but  un- 
til it  is  Chinese  mothers  cannot  justly  be  accused 
of  cruelty  when  they  thus  torture  their  daughters. 
Were  any  Shensi  mother  to  refrain  from  subjecting 
her  daughter  to  the  agonies  of  crippled  feet  she 
would  be  condemning  her  to  a  life  of  humiliation 
and  sorrow  and  perhaps  of  disgrace. 

Almost  every  village  has  a  school,  to  which  are 
sent  all  the  boys  under  the  age  of  twelve.  When  a 
village  wishes  to  establish  a  school  the  inhabitants 
take  up  a  subscription  among  themselves  and  hire  a 
teacher.  In  Shensi,  as  with  us,  teaching  is  a  profes- 
sion. A  village  would  not  be  apt  to  engage  as  the 
instructor  of  its  children  a  man  not  possessed  of  a 
degree  obtained  at  some  of  the  public  examinations. 
Rudimentary  education,  according  to  Chinese  stand- 
ards, is  almost  universal  in  Shensi,  and  it  is  really 
exceptional  to  find  a  man  who  cannot  read  and 
write  in  at  least  one  of  the  dialects.  Almost  every 
boy  of  ten  can  repeat  chapters  of  the  Confucian 
analects  and  a  list  of  the  dynasties.  Girls  are  not 
sent  to  school.     In  some  of  the  larger  towns  a  few 

135 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

men  engage  tutors  to  give  lessons  to  the  women  of 
their  families,  but  among  the  farmers  it  is  excep- 
tional to  find  a  woman  who  has  any  education  be- 
yond a  knowledge  of  weaving,  spinning,  and  house- 
hold drudgery. 

The  great  event  in  the  life  of  the  people  of 
Shensi  is  the  play  which  is  given  once  a  year  in  the 
village-theatre.  The  stage  consists  of  a  brick-plat- 
form, covered  by  a  roof,  supported  on  poles.  At 
the  back  is  sometimes  a  stationary  scene  on  which 
are  painted  pictures  of  dragons  and  gods.  Months 
in  advance  a  village  engages  a  travelling  theatrical 
company  to  give  a  performance.  It  is  paid  for  by 
popular  subscription,  and  there  are  no  such  things 
as  admission-tickets  or  reserved  seats.  The  entire 
population  of  the  village  are  at  liberty  to  stand 
around  the  brick-platform  and  watch  the  play,  which 
is  usually  of  an  historical  character  and  lasts  con- 
tinuously for  five  or  six  days.  The  daily  perform- 
ance is  from  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning,  until  five 
in  the  afternoon,  with  a  wait  at  noon  of  an  hour  be- 
tween the  two  acts.  I  know  of  few  things  on  earth 
that  are  more  jarring  and  nerve-racking  to  Western 
ears  than  a  Shensi  theatre.  At  the  back  of  the 
stage  squat  an  orchestra  armed  with  kettle-drums 
and  cymbals  which  they  beat  and  clash  at  irregular 
intervals  until  the  din  becomes  deafening. 

In  order  to  make  themselves  heard  above  the 
noise,  the  actors  have  to  assume  a  shrill  falsetto  in 
reciting   their  lines  that   makes  one's  throat  ache 

136 


SHENSI— THE    OLD    RACE 

from  sympathy,  but  the  audience  enjoy  the  play 
hugely.  Although  they  never  express  their  ap- 
plause by  hand-clapping,  an  "Ah-a"  of  approval 
frequently  sweeps  over  the  crowd.  The  annual  play 
is  also  an  important  social  function  in  the  life  of 
the  village.  It  is  the  only  amusement  in  which  the 
women  can  participate  with  propriety,  and  it  thus 
gives  Shensi  youths  an  opportunity  of  meeting  vil- 
lage-maidens whom  they  see  at  no  other  time.  The 
open  yard  around  the  theatre  is  the  scene  of  numer- 
ous little  flirtations,  and  is  really  the  only  place 
where  anything  like  love-making  is  permissible. 
Chinese  marriages  are  arranged  entirely  by  the  par- 
ents of  the  principals,  but  it  sometimes  happens  in 
Shensi  that  a  son  will  tell  his  father  that  he  would 
prefer  as  his  wife  a  certain  girl  whom  he  has  met  at 
the  play,  and  will  request  that  her  parents'  consent 
be  obtained  to  their  marriage. 

Funerals  in  Shensi  are  not  accompanied  by 
that  show  of  sadness  and  depression  of  spirits  which 
characterises  them  in  the  United  States.  When  a 
Son  of  Han  dies  the  entire  village  holds  over  his 
body  a  joyous  wake  that  lasts  for  several  days.  As 
a  means  of  providing  the  dead  man  with  sufficient 
money  to  have  a  good  time  in  the  spirit-world,  his 
friends  burn  long  strings  of  pieces  of  tinsel  paper, 
which  are  supposed  to  be  transformed  by  the  flames 
into  taels.  In  order  that  he  may  have  a  pony  to 
ride,  they  make  a  bonfire  of  a  paper  image  of  a 
horse,    which    is   believed   immediately    to   assume 

137 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

spirit  form  and  to  find  its  owner.     At  the  end  of 
about  the  third  day,  the  funeral  procession  starts  for 
the  cemetery  outside  of  the  village.     Three  or  four 
priests  in  white  robes  lead  the  way,  followed  by  the 
heavy,  wood  coffin  containing  the  deceased.     Close 
behind  the  coffin  follow  all  the  men  of  the  village, 
laughing  and  talking,  and,  apparently,  keenly  enjoy- 
ing the  outing  which  the  funeral  gives  them.     Last 
of  all,  in  an  open  cart,  are  the  widow  and  children 
of  the  man  who  died.     They  publish  their  sorrow 
by  a  loud   howling  which    often    makes  a  funeral 
procession  heard  long  before  it  can  be  seen.     But 
in  the  faces  of  the  women  there  is  seldom  depicted 
any  sign  of  grief   that  is   perceptible  to  Western 
eyes.     As  they  howl,  they  sit  bolt-upright  in  the  cart, 
and  nod  and  smile  to  their  friends.     In  a  funeral 
procession  which  I  saw  in  a  village  near  the  town  of 
Hua  the  party  of  feminine  mourners  was  larger  than 
usual.    The  younger  members  took  turns  in  desisting 
from  the  howling  process  long  enough  to  lean  over 
the  edge  of  the  cart  and  carry  on  a  sprightly  con- 
versation with  the  young  men  who  walked  beside  it. 
The  colour  of  mourning-garments  in  China  would 
have  pleased  Mr.  Ruskin.     Their  original  colour  is 
white,  but  as  mourners  do  not  wash  their  clothes 
more  frequently  than  the  rest  of  the  population,  the 
garments  of  sadness  soon  take  on  the  colour  of  the 
soil  of  the  country  and  become  a  dull  gray.    Among 
a  crowd  of  Shensi  farmers,  all  dressed  in  blue  or 
black,  the  white  clothes  of  a  mourner  sometimes 

138 


SHENSI— THE   OLD    RACE 

give  him  a  ghostly  appearance.  In  riding  across  a 
plain  after  sundown  it  gives  one  a  sensation  of  the 
uncanny  to  see  a  widow  in  white  outline  against 
the  darkened  sky. 

Scattered  among  the  villages  of  Shensi  are  men 
who,  because  of  some  crime  committed  in  another 
part  of  the  Empire,  are  condemned  to  a  life  of  exile. 
Although  Chinese  cities  have  their  jails  and  prisons, 
long  sentences  are  seldom  imposed  on  criminals ; 
they  are,  instead,  banished  for  a  term  of  years  to 
a  distant  province.  The  punishment  by  exile  is 
founded  on  the  theory  that  it  is  "never  too  late  to 
mend,"  and  that  it  is  better  to  give  a  man  who  has 
"gone  wrong"  an  opportunity  of  beginning  life 
over  again  amid  new  surroundings  than  it  is  to 
compel  the  community  among  whom  he  is  dis- 
graced to  support  him  in  prison.  In  accordance 
with  this  purely  "  heathen  "  idea  of  giving  a  bad  man 
"another  chance,"  hundreds  of  men  are  every  year 
sentenced  to  banishment.  As  Shensi  is  so  remote 
from  the  more  populous  parts  of  China,  it  has  be- 
come the  province  to  which  mandarins  of  the  South 
and  East  most  frequently  exile  criminals.  The 
sentence  of  banishment  always  specifies  the  Shen 
where  the  convicted  man  must  reside.  He  is  sent 
thither  under  Government  escort  and  is  paroled 
to  the  mandarin  ;  should  he  try  to  escape  during 
his  term  of  sentence,  he  will  be  put  to  death,  but 
within  its  boundaries  his  liberty  is  no  less  than  that 
of  any  other  citizen.     He  can  engage  in  trade  or 

139 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

farming,  and  is  in  every  way  encouraged  to  lead  an 
upright  life.  If  at  the  end  of  two  or  three  years  his 
conduct  is  such  as  to  obtain  the  approval  of  the 
mandarin,  he  is  allowed  to  send  for  his  wife  and 
children  to  join  him,  but  banishment  is  a  sentence 
imposed  only  for  such  crimes  as  larceny  or  fraud. 
Murder  or  treason  is  always  punishable  with 
death.  In  the  court-yard  of  an  inn  one  day  I  saw  a 
young  man  leaning  against  a  wall.  His  feet  and 
hands  were  manacled,  but  his  expression  was  ex- 
ceedingly happy,  and  he  was  chatting  gaily  with  a 
group  of  cart-drivers  about  him.  I  joined  the  group, 
and  presently  asked  him,  through  Wang,  what  crime 
he  had  committed.  "  I  killed  a  man,"  was  the  smil- 
ing reply. 

"  And  you  are  now  on  your  way  to  exile  ?  " 
"  Oh  no.     The  Shen  Mandarin  will  cut  off  my 
head.     Will  you  let  me  have  two  cash  for  a  cup  of 
hot  water  ?  " 


140 


UN    THE    WAV    TO    LOSM    JUS    HEAD. 


CHAPTER    XI 

MANDARINS   AND    THEIR    METHODS 

ABOVE  and  beyond  everything  else  in  the  life 
of  Shensi,  are  the  mandarins.  To  the  people 
of  the  interior  it  is  not  the  Emperor  in  Pekin  but 
the  mandarins  of  the  province  who  are  government 
and  law  and  power.  The  workings  of  the  man- 
darin system  in  Shensi  are  in  no  essential  respect 
different  from  what  they  are  all  over  the  Empire, 
but  as  I  am  writing  of  the  life  of  the  people  of 
Shensi,  I  include  the  result  of  my  observation  of 
mandarins  and  their  methods  in  this  brief  descrip- 
tion of  some  of  the  institutions  and  customs  of  that 
province.  Chinese  government  is  a  progression  of 
personal  responsibility.  No  matter  how  great  may 
be  the  power  intrusted  to  an  individual,  he  is  always 
responsible  for  the  results  of  the  execution  of  his 
commission  or  the  administration  of  his  office  to  an 
official  above  him,  who  in  turn  can  be  held  account- 
able by  some  one  a  degree  nearer  to  the  throne. 
In  the  interior  of  China,  the  functions  of  govern- 
ment are  not,  as  with  us,  separated  into  executive, 
legislative,  and  judicial  departments.  They  are  all 
vested  in  an  individual  who  is  supreme  and  who 
is   held   responsible   for    everything   that    happens 

141 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

within  his  particular  sphere  of  action.  The  Govern- 
ment of  China  may  be  described  as  a  ladder  of 
personal  responsibility  that  extends  from  the  hum- 
blest village  in  the  Empire  to  the  dragon-throne  in 
Pekin. 

The  rounds  in  the  ladder  are  the  mandarins. 
The  mandarin  of  a  Shen  or  district  is  responsible  for 
all  the  villages  it  includes.  A  certain  number  of 
Shen  Mandarins  report  to  each  Chau  or  township 
mandarin.  They  in  turn  are  under  the  orders  of  the 
mandarins  of  the  Tings,  or  sub-prefectures.  Ting- 
mandarins  are  accountable  to  the  Fu  or  county-man- 
darins, whose  place  in  the  scale  is  in  the  step  next 
below  the  governor  of  the  province.  It  is  a  pecu- 
liarity of  the  system  that  although  the  Emperor 
holds  an  absolute  power  of  life  and  death,  he  very 
seldom  applies  it  directly  to  his  subjects.  An  Im- 
perial order  affecting  an  individual  is  communicated 
to  the  governor  of  the  province  of  which  the  object 
of  the  order  is  a  citizen.  Through  a  Fu  Mandarin, 
the  governor  starts  the  order  down  the  line,  until  it 
finally  reaches  the  Shen  Mandarin,  whose  duty  it  is 
to  execute  it.  But  the  responsibility  resting  upon 
mandarins  applies  only  to  results.  It  has  nothing 
to  do  with  ways  or  means.  The  methods  which  a 
mandarin  may  employ  in  executing  an  order ;  his 
administration  of  justice,  and  the  general  conduct 
of  his  office  concern  no  one  but  himself.  Should 
a  mandarin  fail  to  raise  the  amount  of  taxes 
assigned    to  his    district,  he  would  lose    his  office 

142 


MANDARINS   AND    THEIR    METHODS 

and  would  perhaps  be  severely  punished,  but  if  he 
wrung  the  money  from  the  poor  farmers  by  cruelly 
torturing  them  no  one  would  interfere.  Within 
his  own  sphere  of  action,  each  mandarin  is  supreme 
and  independent.  Laws  and  precedents  there  are, 
to  be  sure,  but  these  give  only  a  general  trend  and 
direction  to  his  policy.  The  settlement  of  every 
question  that  may  arise  within  his  own  jurisdiction 
is  left  entirely  to  the  mandarin's  own  judgment  and 
discretion.  He  can  cut  off  heads,  put  men  in 
prison,  and  do  just  about  as  he  likes  so  long  as  he 
remains  in  power. 

The  governor  of  each  province  is  practically  its 
king.  He  can  be  removed  from  office  at  a  word 
from  the  Emperor.  He  can  be  put  to  death  with- 
out a  trial,  and  he  may,  at  any  time,  receive  the  Im- 
perial "silken  cord,"  commanding  him  to  commit 
suicide,  which,  as  a  mandarin  and  a  man  of  honour, 
he  is  bound  to  obey,  but  while  he  lives  and  is  gov- 
ernor no  one  of  the  millions  of  inhabitants  of  the 
province  can  question  his  authority  for  an  instant. 
The  government  in  each  stage  of  the  progression 
expects  that  the  next  order  below  shall  be  able  to 
cope  with  all  difficulties  that  may  arise  within  their 
districts.  If  a  province  is  invaded  by  a  foreign 
enemy,  it  is  the  business  of  the  governor  to  raise 
an  army  and  to  drive  back  the  invaders.  So  long 
as  the  war  is  confined  to  that  particular  province, 
no  one  outside  of  it  takes  much  interest  in  the  re- 
sult ;  and  this  is  the  reason  why  war  may  be  raging 

143 


THROUGH    HIDDEN   SHENSl 

in  a  third  of  the  Empire  while  the  business  of  the 
other  two-thirds  will  go  on  as  though  nothing  un- 
usual were  happening.  If  a  governor  is  unable  to 
suppress  a  rebellion  that  has  broken  out  in  his  prov- 
ince, no  matter  whether  he  is  really  to  blame  or  not, 
he  will  be  disgraced  for  life,  or,  as  the  Chinese  would 
say  he  will  **  lose  his  face,"  and  his  death  may  be  the 
punishment  for  his  misfortune. 

Whenever  a  murder  or  robbery  is  committed, 
it  is  the  duty  of  the  Shen  Mandarin  to  find  the 
guilty  man  and  punish  him.  Should  he  fail  to  do 
so,  he  is  almost  certain  to  be  removed  from  office. 
Before  a  man  can  become  a  mandarin  he  must  hold 
a  degree,  which  he  is  supposed  to  have  obtained  by 
passing  a  public  examination  ;  but  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  in  the  prevailing  state  of  government  corrup- 
tion, degrees  are  often  obtained  through  bribery. 
Mandarins  throughout  the  Empire  are  appointed 
by  a  board  in  Pekin,  usually  at  the  recommendation 
of  a  governor  or  high  official.  For  every  position 
there  are  at  least  three  or  four  eligible  applicants, 
and  this  fact  makes  the  government  not  at  all  slow 
to  remove  a  mandarin  whose  administration  of  the 
affairs  in  his  district  has  not  produced  the  results  for 
which  he  is  responsible.  On  the  other  hand,  if  a 
mandarin  in  a  lower  grade  proves  himself  to  be 
especially  capable  and  to  be  possessed  of  more  than 
ordinary  ability  he  may  be  promoted  to  a  higher 
position  in  the  scale.  The  result  of  all  this  is  to 
make  a  mandarin  very  desirous  of  maintaining  the 

144 


SHEXSI     MAXDAkIN    AND    HIS    MUSICIANS. 


MANDARINS   AND    THEIR    METHODS 

condition  that   is  described  by  his  countrymen  as 
"  Peace." 

The  Shensi  idea  of  peace  differs  very  materially 
from  the  American.  Stagnation  would  perhaps  be 
a  better  definition  of  the  ideal  condition  of  the  Sons 
of  Han.  Progress  or  improvement  is  absolutely 
incompatible  with  it.  No  matter  how  fully  a  man- 
darin may  realise  faults  in  the  existing  order,  he  is 
sure  to  find  himself  in  trouble  if  he  attempts  to 
change  or  improve  anything.  If  he  repairs  a  road 
so  as  to  make  it  passable  for  carts,  the  muleteers 
whose  business  is  injured  are  almost  certain  to  come 
to  blows  with  the  carters,  and  the  mandarin  is  held 
responsible  for  bringing  on  a  row  in  his  district.  If 
he  shows  an  interest  in  Western  learning,  the  anti- 
foreign  element  may  be  aroused,  and  in  the  contro- 
versy that  follows  somebody  may  throw  a  brick 
through  the  window  of  the  mission-chapel.  The 
man  next  above  in  the  official  scale  will  want  to 
know  what  it  was  all  about  and  the  mandarin  will 
have  to  take  the  blame.  So  that  if  a  mandarin  is 
wise  in  his  time  and  generation  he  will  always  act  on 
the  principle  that  "  whatever  is,  is  right."  He  will 
take  care  to  see  that  his  district  is  in  exactly  the 
same  condition  at  the  expiration  of  his  term  of  office 
that  it  was  at  the  beginning.  His  aim  will  always 
be  to  allow  nothing  to  get  out  of  the  ruts  where  it 
has  run  for  centuries.  If  he  consistently  maintains 
this  policy  he  will  be  deeply  beloved  by  his  people. 
They  will  refer  to  him  as  a  "  good  "  mandarin  and 

145 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

they  will  rather  enjoy  seeing  him  amass  a  fortune 
by  "squeezing." 

The  translation  of  this  often-used,  pigeon-Eng- 
lish word  is  steal.  The  motive  which  makes  so 
many  men  anxious  to  become  mandarins  is  not  the 
honour  which  attaches  to  the  position,  but  the  op- 
portunity it  gives  them  of  enriching  themselves. 
Any  mandarin  of  a  small  township  who  is  clever 
enough  to  remain  in  office  for  ten  or  twelve  years 
is  almost  certain  to  be  rich  for  the  rest  of  his  life. 
In  every  shen  town  in  Shensi,  the  mandarin  is  in- 
variably the  richest  member  of  the  community,  and 
neither  he  nor  anyone  else  attempts  to  conceal  the 
fact  that  he  has  accumulated  his  wealth  by  steal- 
ing from  the  public  funds.  A  mandarin's  salary 
from  the  Imperial  Government  is  a  mere  pittance, 
sometimes  not  a  tenth  of  what  he  has  to  spend  in 
the  maintenance  of  his  household  and  his  retinue  of 
servants.  He  makes  up  the  deficiency  by  helping 
himself  to  a  share  of  all  the  money  that  passes 
through  his  hands.  But  he  does  not  stop  at  an 
amount  sufficient  only  to  pay  the  expenses  of  his 
office ;  he  appropriates  for  himself  a  surplus  that  is 
described  in  China  as  the  "  profits  of  the  man- 
darin business."  As  every  mandarin  is  his  own 
county  treasurer,  assessor,  and  collector,  his  facilities 
for  "squeezing"  are  limited  only  by  the  amount  of 
money  that  his  district  can  produce.  He  steals 
openly  and  with  the  tacit  consent  of  the  Govern- 
ment.    The  men  who  compose  the  Government  are 

146 


MANDARINS   AND   THEIR    METHODS 

themselves  mandarins  who  share  in  the  "  squeeze," 
so  that  were  the  lower  mandarins  to  be  honest  in 
their  administration,  the  Government  would  have  to 
increase  their  salaries,  and  as  a  result  there  would 
not  be  so  much  squeeze  available  at  the  top  of  the 
ladder.  When  an  order  comes  from  Pekin  for  the 
levy  of  the  annual  provincial  taxes,  the  governor 
adds  to  the  sum  demanded  a  large  sum  for  himself, 
and  then  apportions  its  collection  among  the  Fu 
Mandarins.  They  each  in  turn  take  a  liberal  com- 
mission and  allow  the  men  below  them  to  do  the 
same.  As  a  result,  the  burden  of  taxation  which 
falls  on  the  poor  farmer  is  much  heavier  than  it 
ought  to  be,  but  it  is  no  more  than  it  has  been  in 
previous  years.  He  pays  his  share  without  a  mur- 
mur, hoping  that  by  doing  so  he  will  have  "  Peace." 
*'  Squeeze "  is  an  integral  part  of  the  whole 
mandarin  system.  It  is  the  incentive  to  office-hold- 
ing which  provides  the  Government  with  a  large 
number  of  eligible  applicants  for  mandarin-posi- 
tions, and  is  the  lubricant  which  keeps  the  entire 
vast  machinery  running  smoothly.  As  a  Shensi 
man  once  explained  to  me,  "a  mandarin  would  not 
be  a  mandarin  if  he  did  not  squeeze."  But  if  it 
were  possible  to  eliminate  "  squeezing  "  from  man- 
darin administration,  the  system  could  not  be  said 
to  be  without  its  advantages.  In  a  country  like 
China,  the  mandarin  system  insures  liberty  to  the 
individual  and  stands  between  an  absolute  monarch 
and  the  people. 

147 


THROUGH    HIDDEN   SHENSI 

Except  in  a  time  of  rebellion  or  disorder,  when 
the  appointment  of  officials  with  extraordinary 
powers  becomes  a  necessity,  the  mandarin  is  the 
only  person  in  the  district  who  directly  represents 
the  government.  All  of  the  subordinate  officials, 
such  as  clerks  of  the  court,  tax-collectors,  jailers, 
and  policemen  are  merely  servants  of  the  mandarin. 
They  are  hired  by  him  and  they  are  paid  from  his 
private  funds.  They  live  in  or  near  his  residence, 
and  constitute  his  official  family.  They  are  quite  as 
much  at  his  beck  and  call  as  are  his  cooks  or  chair- 
carriers.  No  matter  how  important  and  responsible 
may  be  the  position  of  a  subordinate  official,  he  is 
never  referred  to  by  any  other  title  than  "  servant  of 
the  mandarin."  Chief  of  the  "servants"  is  a  man 
whose  duties  are  a  combination  of  prime-minister 
and  secretary.  He  is  paid  a  large  salary  and  is  the 
only  member  of  the  household  whom  the  mandarin 
at  all  regards  as  an  equal.  He  is  privileged  to  ad- 
dress his  master  without  a  preliminary  kow-tow, 
and  he  can  urge  the  adoption  of  a  measure  which 
he  believes  to  be  for  the  interest  of  the  people  of 
the  district.  The  chief  "servant"  is  usually  well 
advanced  in  years.  He  has  Confucius  and  the  com- 
mentaries at  his  tongue's  end.  He  is  consulted  in 
deciding  all  vexed  questions,  and  is  in  charge  of  the 
mandarin's  correspondence. 

The  writing  of  even  a  short  note  in  conformity 
with  all  the  requirements  of  mandarin  good  form  is 
a  formidable  undertaking  which  very  few  men  in  a 

148 


MANDARINS   AND   THEIR    METHODS 

Shensi  town  can  accomplish  successfully.  Not  only 
must  every  letter  be  written  in  the  official  language, 
a  vernacular  never  used  in  ordinary  conversation, 
but  the  ideas  expressed  in  any  document  that  bears 
the  mandarin's  signature  must  never  have  the  ap- 
pearance of  being  original  with  the  writer.  Every- 
thing that  the  mandarin  does  or  says  must  appear  to 
be  a  repetition  of  the  act  of  some  great  man  who 
lived  hundreds  of  years  ago  or  a  modern  application 
of  the  wisdom  of  some  ancient  sage.  Every  para- 
graph in  a  mandarin's  letter  usually  concludes  with 
a  quotation  from  the  classics  or  a  reference  to  an 
event  in  Chinese  history,  so  that  no  one  will  sup- 
pose for  a  moment  that  the  mandarin  has  commit- 
ted the  grave  error  of  doing  or  saying  anything 
new.  The  responsibility  of  eliminating  all  original- 
ity from  the  official  correspondence  rests  with  the 
chief  servant.  His  success  depends  upon  his  abil- 
ity to  clothe  all  his  master's  ideas  in  language  that 
will  make  them  belong  to  the  past. 

A  mandarin's  dress  is  prescribed  by  the  Gov- 
ernment, and  for  anyone  else  to  imitate  it,  even  in 
the  smallest  detail,  is  a  crime,  punishable  by  law. 
A  mandarin  wears  a  round  cap,  the  brim  of  which 
turns  up  in  a  way  that  gives  it  much  the  appearance 
of  the  cover  of  a  saucepan.  The  top  is  covered 
with  a  kind  of  rosette  of  red  cord  ;  in  the  centre  is 
the  button,  whose  colour  indicates  the  rank  of  the 
mandarin.  His  servants  are  permitted  to  wear  caps 
of  a  similar  pattern  when   in  the  discharge  of  their 

149 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

official  duties,  but  under  no  consideration  can  they 
wear  a  button  or  decoration  of  any  kind.  The  long 
robe  which  envelops  a  mandarin  from  his  neck  to 
his  ankles  is  of  brown  silk.  The  only  ornamenta- 
tion permitted  is  a  square  on  the  front  and  back,  in 
which  is  embroidered  a  design  in  gold  or  silver 
thread.  The  sleeves  are  of  extra  length  in  order  to 
conceal  his  hands.  For  a  mandarin  to  expose  so 
much  as  the  tip  of  a  finger  at  a  public  audience 
would  be  a  very  grave  breach  of  propriety.  A 
mandarin's  boots  have  enormously  thick  soles. 
This  is  to  give  to  their  wearer  a  commanding  pres- 
ence, and  to  make  him  appear  taller  than  men  of 
common  mould.  Whenever  a  mandarin  is  officially 
received  by  a  superior,  he  wears  around  his  neck  a 
long  string  of  wooden  beads.  Upon  entering  the 
audience-chamber  of  the  man  whose  rank  is  higher 
than  his  own,  the  mandarin  must  drop  on  one  knee, 
and  holding  the  beads  at  arm's  length  from  his  face 
must  fix  his  entire  attention  upon  them.  It  would 
be  a  sad  day  for  him  if  on  such  an  occasion  he 
should  allow  his  eyes  to  wander  for  one  moment  to 
the  floor  or  the  ceiling.  The  offence  would  be  in- 
stantly reported,  he  would  be  rebuked,  and  his  "  face 
would  be  lost "  forever. 

By  the  time  I  had  reached  Sian,  I  had  met  sev- 
eral score  of  mandarins ;  it  would  be  hard  to  find 
anywhere  more  delightful  or  companionable  men.  I 
grew  to  look  forward  to  the  half  hour  passed  with  a 
mandarin  at  my  kung  kwan  as  the  happiest  incident 

ISO 


MANDARINS   AND   THEIR    METHODS 

in  the  day.  I  have  never  talked  with  a  mandarin, 
whose  manner  did  not  indicate  a  great  degree  of 
refinement  and  cultivation,  and  who  did  not  possess 
a  certain  savoir  /aire  t\\2it  seemed  remarkably  in  ac- 
cordance with  Anglo-Saxon  standards.  A  manda- 
rin is  always  quiet  and  dignified.  He  has  none 
of  the  effusiveness  or  gush  of  the  Latin  races ;  he 
has  a  sense  of  humour,  he  can  tell  a  story  well,  and 
his  conversation  is  often  interlarded  with  bits  of 
cynical  persiflage  which  he  does  not  object  having 
answered  in  kind  by  a  "  man  from  the  West."  A 
mandarin  is  usually  adaptable  ;  he  can  be  serious  or 
gay  as  the  occasion  demands.  He  never  over- 
whelms a  stranger  with  politeness,  but  usually  asks, 
as  an  American  might,  "  Is  there  anything  I  can  do 
for  you  ?  "  A  mandarin  must  of  necessity  be  well 
educated,  and  he  is  an  authority  on  everything  that 
has  to  do  with  the  history  or  monuments  of  the  dis- 
trict over  which  he  rules.  Notwithstanding  "squeez- 
ing," in  all  transactions  with  individuals  he  has  a 
man's  sense  of  honour,  and  his  word  once  given 
will  surely  be  kept.  Some  Shensi  towns,  too  ob- 
scure to  appear  on  any  map,  are  ruled  by  mandarins 
who  in  any  assemblage  in  New  York  would  be 
called  "men  of  the  world." 


151 


CHAPTER    XII 

SIAN  AND  THE  SIANESE 

"^  I  ^HE  Chinese  have  no  sense  of  beauty,"  a 
-i.  missionary  once  explained  to  me. 
The  kungkvvan  where  we  stayed  the  last  night 
before  reaching  Sian  was  near  the  Baths  of  Lintoun. 
In  the  side  of  a  hill  was  a  hot  sulphur-spring.  A 
stone-cave  built  over  it  inclosed  a  pool  about  forty 
feet  square.  The  yellow  water  had  been  bubbling 
up  into  its  rock-hewn  bowl  while  empires  on  our 
side  of  the  world  had  come  and  gone.  An  inscrip- 
tion over  the  entrance  to  the  cave  told  of  its  having 
been  repaired  by  an  emperor  of  China  who  reigned 
two  thousand  years  ago.  By  a  system  of  under- 
ground pipes  the  steaming  water  was  carried  about 
a  thousand  yards  to  a  hollow  on  the  hillside,  where 
it  formed  an  artificial  lake.  Its  margin  was  shaded 
by  shrubbery  and  plants  of  varieties  rare  in  Shensi. 
Narrow  piers  on  piles  extended  from  the  shore  to 
a  series  of  pavilions  in  the  centre  of  the  lake.  A 
narrow  walk  connected  the  pavilions  and  wound  in 
and  out  among  them.  With  an  exquisite  attention 
to  detail,  the  walks  were  inclosed  by  a  low  balus- 
trade composed  of  serpentine  railings  that  alternated 
in  a  succession  of  red  and  blue  above  the  yellow 

152 


SIAN   AND   THE   SIANESE 

water.  In  designing  the  pavilions  care  had  evidently- 
been  taken  that  no  two  of  the  tiled  roofs  should  be 
of  the  same  colour.  Above  the  lake  labyrinthine 
paths  led  up  the  side  of  the  hill  to  a  little  shrine  at 
the  top. 

When  I  first  saw  the  lake  the  sun  was  drop- 
ping into  the  plain  away  off  in  the  direction  of 
Sian.  As  the  last  light  of  day  fell  across  the  glazed 
pavilion-roofs,  they  glinted  and  flashed  for  a  few 
minutes  and  then  their  colours  began  to  blend.  Purple 
and  green  and  red,  all  melted  into  gold,  while  the 
mist  of  yellow  steam  breathed  softly  into  the  bushes 
on  the  shore.  I  watched  that  play  of  God-made 
sunlight  and  man-made  colour  until  the  rising  mist 
met  the  falling  twilight  and  darkness  came.  It  was 
then  that  I  remembered  that  the  "  Chinese  have  no 
sense  of  beauty."  If  that  hillside  with  its  lake  and 
pavilions  had  been  part  of  the  gardens  of  a  man  who 
had  founded  a  trust  or  who  had  consolidated  a  rail- 
road-system, it  is  safe  to  say  that  we  should  have 
heard  all  about  them  long  ago.  We  should  have 
been  accurately  informed  as  to  how  much  they  cost, 
and  we  should  know  where  their  landscape-gardener 
"  got  the  idea  "  which  he  followed  in  their  design. 
But  Lintoun  has  not  the  advantage  of  being  con- 
spicuous. The  glinting  roofs  play  with  the  sunlight 
that  falls  on  a  grey,  forgotten  land,  whose  "  heathen  " 
people  have  always  scorned  the  stare  of  the  crowd 
and  who  have  never  worked  for  praise.  To  the 
men  and  women  of  the  Shensi  villages  around  Lin- 

153 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

toun  it  is  enough  that  the  cave  is  on  the  hillside, 
and  that  the  yellow  mist  is  forever  rising  under  the 
shadow  of  the  green  and  purple  pavilions.  They 
love  it  all  as  their  fathers  did  before  them.  They 
may  not  know  what  moderns  mean  by  a  "sense  of 
beauty,"  but  the  day  may  come  when  the  West  will 
go  to  that  yellow  race  in  that  old  grey  land  and  will 
say,  "We  are  children.  Teach  us  what  beauty  is." 
During  the  evening  that  we  spent  in  Lintoun 
Wang  discovered  that  a  few  taels  of  silver  which  he 
carried  for  our  daily  travelling  "  cumshaw  "-money 
had  been  stolen.  The  carter,  Wang  said,  had  seen 
the  money  in  his  possession  and  he  strongly  sus- 
pected him  of  being  the  thief.  Although  the  amount 
of  my  loss  was  very  small,  I  decided,  in  order  to 
prevent  subsequent  robberies  on  a  larger  scale,  not 
to  allow  it  to  go  unnoticed.  The  Wei  Wen,  accom- 
panied by  Wang,  went  to  the  inn  of  the  town  and 
there  arrested  the  carter.  Together  we  took  the 
prisoner  to  the  mandarin  of  the  town.  By  this  time 
it  was  nearly  nine  o'clock,  and  the  mandarin  would 
have  been  justified  in  expressing  annoyance  at  being 
disturbed  at  so  late  an  hour,  but  instead  he  only 
asked  politely  what  I  wanted.  When  I  explained 
to  him  the  cause  of  our  visit,  he  asked  the  carter  if 
he  had  taken  the  money.  Our  prisoner  fell  on  his 
knees  and  swore  by  Confucius  and  several  other 
things  that  he  was  innocent.  He  was  so  demonstra- 
tive in  his  protestations  that  I  was  half  inclined  to 
believe  him,  but  the  mandarin  only  smiled  blandly 

154 


SIAN   AND   THE   SIANESE 

and  said  to  one  of  his  servants,  "Twenty  bam- 
boo." The  prisoner's  right  hand  was  bound  to 
a  cord  around  his  waist  and  on  the  open  palm 
the  servant  struck  twenty  short  cutting  blows 
with  a  piece  of  rattan.  "  Do  you  still  say  that 
you  did  not  steal  the  bag  of  taels?"  the  man- 
darin asked.  The  answer  was  again  in  the  negative, 
but  this  time  was  given  much  more  hesitatingly. 
"  Fifty  bamboo."  After  about  the  tenth  blow  of 
the  second  series  the  carter  held  up  his  left  hand  as 
a  signal  to  stop.  He  reached  in  his  blouse  and  drew 
out  the  empty  canvas  sack  that  had  contained  the 
money.  With  much  weeping  and  howling  he  ex- 
plained that  the  temptation  had  been  too  great  for 
him.  He  had  stolen  the  money  and  he  had  spent  it. 
"  Put  a  board  around  his  neck  and  keep  him  here 
for  ten  days,"  was  his  sentence.  As  our  unfortunate 
carter  was  led  away  the  mandarin  turned  to  me  and 
said,  "  I  think  you  will  have  no  more  trouble  with 
thieves.  But  if  you  should,  do  not  try  to  settle  the 
case  yourself,  but  report  it  to  the  mandarin  of  the 
district." 

I  thanked  the  mandarin  for  the  trouble  he 
had  taken  in  the  matter  and  rose  to  go,  but  he 
stopped  me.  "  You  have  met  with  a  loss  in  my 
district,"  he  said,  "  and  to  that  extent  I  have  lost 
my  face  to  you  and  to  Prince  Ching,  whose  card  you 
carry.  I  owe  you  the  amount  that  has  been  stolen 
from  you."  I  assured  him  that  he  owed  me  nothing, 
but   that  I    was   under   obligations   to    him ;    that 

155 


THROUGH    HIDDEN   SHENSI 

the  loss  was  mine  and  not  his,  but  the  mandarin 
grew  quite  stern.  '*I  must  compel  you  to  accept 
the  amount  the  carter  stole  from  you."  At  his 
direction  his  secretary  weighed  out  the  money,  which 
under  the  circumstances  I  could  only  accept.  I  have 
heard  of  Mott  Street  Chinamen  being  held  up  and 
robbed  by  "  toughs  "  on  the  Bowery,  and  I  believe 
that  some  of  the  thieves  have  been  punished,  but  I 
have  yet  to  learn  of  one  such  case  in  which  a  police- 
captain  refunded  to  the  complainant  the  amount  of 
his  loss.      Yes,  "  The  heathen  Chinee  is  peculiar." 

The  eastern  boundary  of  the  Plain  of  Sian  is 
about  two  miles  to  the  westward  of  Lintoun.  Near 
it  the  mountains  veer  to  the  southwest,  partially 
inclosing  a  level  plateau  that  extends  for  hundreds 
of  miles  northward  from  Sian.  The  soil  of  the  plain 
is  a  kind  of  alkali  which  when  well  watered  can  be 
made  very  productive,  but  which  in  time  of  drought 
turns  to  a  fine,  white  powder,  in  which  nothing  can 
grow.  The  plain  is  treeless,  and  the  only  vegetation 
that  is  natural  to  it  is  a  coarse  grass  that  grows  in 
rank  profusion  all  over  Northern  Shensi.  A  series 
of  small  rivers  which  flow  into  the  Wei  Ho  zigzag 
across  the  plain.  The  road  from  Lintoun  crosses 
them  on  stone-bridges  that  were  once  fifteen  or 
twenty  feet  above  the  bed  of  the  river,  but  a  continual 
accretion  of  mud  carried  down  by  the  current  has  so 
buried  the  stone  pillars  on  which  they  rest  that  the 
bridges  are  now  only  about  two  feet  above  the  water. 

Within  a  radius  of  fifty  miles  from  Sian  there 
156 


SIAN   AND    THE   SIAMESE 

is  no  stone  of  the  kind  of  which  the  bridges  are 
built.  The  cutting  of  these  tons  of  granite  in  some 
distant  quarry  and  their  transportation  to  their  pres- 
ent resting-place  is  only  another  commentary  on  the 
originality  of  Chinese  methods  in  performing  dif- 
ficult tasks.  When  I  first  rode  over  the  plain  of 
Sian,  the  crops,  whose  planting  had  been  delayed  by 
drought,  were  just  beginning  to  appear  above  the 
ground,  and  men  and  women  were  at  work  in  the 
fields.  Here  and  there  rose  a  temple  or  a  mud- 
village  like  an  island  in  an  ocean.  Mile  after  mile 
in  every  direction  stretched  the  level,  monotonous 
plain  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach,  without  an  object 
to  please  or  interest  anywhere — a  land  that  seemed 
to  have  been  designed  by  nature  for  a  desert,  and 
that  would  have  been  hopeless  for  any  race  on  earth 
but  the  Sons  of  Han. 

On  the  western  horizon  I  presently  noticed 
what  I  at  first  took  to  be  a  range  of  low  hills.  The 
crest  of  the  ridge  was  broken  at  intervals  by  sharp 
peaks,  which  looked  like  miniature  mountain-tops. 
As  we  drew  nearer  to  them  a  certain  angularity  and 
sharpness  of  outline  became  visible,  which  gave  me 
the  first  suspicion  that  they  might  be  something 
else  than  hills.  I  called  the  shijang  and  pointed 
to  the  ridge  on  the  western  horizon. 

"What  is  that?"  I  asked. 

**  It  is  Sian,"  was  his  reply. 

What  I  had  supposed  to  be  hills  were  in  reality 
the  walls  of  the  city  we  were  seeking.     The  peaks 

157 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

were  the  archery  towers.  Accustomed  as  I  was  by 
this  time  to  Chinese  city-walls,  I  was  not  prepared 
for  anything  so  imposing  as  this  environment  of 
Sian.  Compared  with  their  great  height  and  excel- 
lent condition,  the  walls  of  Pekin  are  straggling 
and  insignificant.  Sian's  walls  are  about  fifteen 
miles  long.  They  were  rebuilt  in  their  present 
form  in  1368  by  the  Emperor  Hung  Wu  of  the  Ming 
dynasty.  At  no  point  is  their  height  less  than 
thirty  feet,  and  near  the  gates  the  distance  from  the 
ground  to  the  roadway  on  the  top  is  fully  seventy 
feet.  The  towers  which  surmount  the  walls  are 
enormous  structures,  each  containing  four  or  five 
stories  with  sixty  or  seventy  windows  through  which 
archers  could  shoot  down  at  an  attacking  force  ad- 
vancing on  the  city  from  the  plain.  The  walls  are 
an  object  of  pride  to  the  Sianese.  In  speaking  of 
the  points  of  interest  in  their  city  they  invariably 
call  a  stranger's  attention  to  the  walls  in  much  the 
same  way  that  a  Chicagoan  might  ask,  "  Have 
you  seen  the  stock-yards  "  ?  With  the  introduction 
of  improved  implements  of  warfare,  and  the  disap- 
pearance of  the  danger  of  Mongol  invasions,  the 
majority  of  Chinese  cities  no  longer  take  as  much 
interest  in  their  walls  as  formerly,  and  a  tendency  is 
manifest  to  allow  the  old  defences  to  fall  into  a 
state  of  dilapidation,  but  Sian  is  not  modern  enough 
to  be  afraid  of  dynamite  or  "twenty-pounders."  Its 
citizens  still  pay  an  enormous  tax  every  year  to  keep 
the  walls  in  constant  repair.     Outside  of  them  are 

158 


SIAN   AND    THE   SIANESE 

a  series  of  suburbs,  through  which  we  passed  in 
approaching  the  eastern  gate  of  the  city. 

Different  and  strange  to  each  other  as  are  the 
peoples  of  the  earth,  there  are  points  where  their 
civilisations  touch  and  lose  their  differences.  In 
the  wide  ocean  that  separates  the  East  from  the 
West,  and  the  oldest  race  from  the  newest,  there  are 
a  few  small  islands  where  men  from  both  continents 
can  meet,  and  can  say :  "This  little  land  belongs  to 
our  common  humanity."  We  are  apt  to  regard  a 
suburbanite  as  an  ultra-modern  product,  but  when 
Wang  translated  the  shijang's  explanation  that  "some 
mens  likes  to  live  outside  the  city  wall  because  land 
is  cheaper  and  they  can  go  into  the  shops  every 
day,"  I  found  myself  wondering  how  much  of  a 
reduction  from  the  regular  fare  Sian  suburbanites 
obtained  by  purchasing  monthly  commutation  tick- 
ets. Sian  suburbs  possess  many  of  the  elements 
that  might  characterise  a  nearby  dependency  of  New 
York.  Their  population  is  frequently  quite  large. 
They  have  schools  and  temples,  but  no  shops  or 
market-places.  For  their  shopping  the  inhabitants 
must  go  into  town  ;  and  Sian  suburbanites  have 
travelled  back  and  forth  between  their  homes  and 
their  offices  every  day  for  the  last  5,000  years. 

We  passed  over  a  bridge  across  a  moat  in  front 
of  the  eastern  gate,  and  entered  the  city.  Our  ob- 
jective point  was  the  residence  of  Mr.  Duncan, 
British  missionary,  who  had  been  in  charge  of  the 
distribution    of    the   American    famine-relief-funds. 

159 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

Our  ride  to  his  house  gave  me  an  opportunity  of  ob- 
taining an  impression  of  the  size  and  extent  of  Sian. 
For  more  than  three  miles  we  rode  through  streets 
that  were  lined  with  stores,  and  banks,  and  markets. 
Carts,  mandarin's  chairs,  and  men  on  horseback 
were  making  their  way  in  and  out  among  the  mov- 
ing crowds,  and  everywhere  were  signs  of  life  and 
activity.  The  deeper  I  had  progressed  into  the 
hidden  part  of  the  Middle  Kingdom  the  more  I  had 
become  impressed  with  the  fact  that  it  is  better  in 
China  to  do  as  the  Chinese  do.  Not  only  had  I 
become  a  master  of  chop-sticks,  but  by  a  series  of 
purchases  on  the  journey  I  had  acquired  a  suit  of 
Chinese  outer  garments  in  which  I  always  appeared 
in  public.  I  found  that  by  wearing  them  I  gener- 
ally saved  myself  from  the  curiosity  of  the  people  of 
the  towns  through  which  I  passed,  and  I  was  able 
to  eliminate  from  conversations  with  mandarins  an 
inquiry  as  to  why  "  men  from  the  West  insisted  on 
wearing  their  trousers  outside  of  their  boots." 

When  I  rode  into  Sian,  I  was  enveloped  in  a 
long  sheep-skin  coat,  Chinese  top-boots,  and  a  fur- 
lined  cap  that  came  down  over  my  forehead,  but  the 
Sianese  saw  through  my  disguise  at  once.  Men  in 
the  street  stopped  to  stare.  Women  and  children  ap- 
peared at  the  windows  and  pointed  at  me  while  the 
soldiers  of  my  escort  were  kept  busy  in  dispersing  the 
crowd  of  small  boys  who  followed  at  my  pony's  heels. 
I  could  not,  of  course,  understand  the  comments  of 
the  crowd,  but  Wang  informed  me  that  "the  par- 

160 


SIAN    AND   THE    SIANESE 

ents  want  the  children  to  see  what  a  funny  thing 
the  foreign  man  looks  like."  Presently  the  Wei 
Wen  who  was  acting  as  our  guide  dismounted  before 
a  low  gateway,  over  which  was  a  pasteboard  sign  in- 
scribed with  the  words,  "American  kung  kwan." 
In  front  of  the  gateway  stood  a  man  in  Chinese  cos- 
tume. Through  his  gold-rimmed  spectacles  his  steel- 
grey  eyes  looked  at  me  with  that  sincere  kindliness, 
of  which  I  sometimes  think  only  Scotch  eyes  are 
capable. 

"  Hello,  Mr.  Duncan,"  I  said,  as,  stiff  and 
stumbling,  I  climbed  down  from  my  pony.  "  I 
have  been  looking  for  you  for  some  time." 

The  merry  twinkle  behind  the  spectacles  ex- 
panded into  a  hearty  laugh  as  he  surveyed  my  poor 
attempt  at  a  Chinese  appearance.  "  It's  a  hard 
thing  for  a  Yankee  to  look  like  a  Chinaman,"  he 
said,  "  but  I  am  glad  to  see  you.  The  governor 
told  me  you  were  getting  near  the  city.  I  was 
afraid  you  might  not  make  it.  There  are  a  few 
Boxers  left  up  the  country.  Come  in.  I've  a  bit 
of  tiffin  for  you  that  you  can  eat  with  a  knife  and 
fork." 

Such  was  my  first  introduction  to  the  "  mis- 
sionary of  Sian,"  one  of  those  few  great-hearted 
men  who  do  not  belong  to  any  race  or  nation,  but 
to  the  brotherhood  of  mankind ;  whose  unseen  la- 
bours in  the  hidden  places  of  the  earth  are  knitting 
the  world  together.  With  an  Oxford  education  Mr. 
Duncan   had  lived  for  years  in  that  far-away,  vast 

i6i 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

city,  in  order  that  "some  might  be  saved";  from 
being  regarded  as  almost  a  foreign  outcast  he  had 
come  to  be  adviser  of  the  government,  and  a  power 
throughout  the  whole  of  Shensi. 

No  one  knows  when  or  by  whom  Sian  was 
founded.  From  all  that  I  have  ever  been  able  to 
discover  on  the  subject  I  am  led  to  believe  that 
when  Noah  was  a  little  boy,  Sian  was  not  very  dif- 
ferent from  what  it  is  to-day.  Sian  was  a  flourish- 
ing town  when  Fu  hi  was  born,  and  Fu  hi  stands  at 
the  beginning  of  Chinese  mythical  history.  Hwang- 
ti,  the  *'  Yellow  Emperor,"  whose  reign  began  in 
B.C.  2697,  made  Sian  his  capital.  Hwang-ti  invented 
carts,  and  bows  and  arrows,  and  devised  the  Chinese 
calendar.  His  queen,  Lui-tsu,  invented  silk  weaving 
and  is  to-day  worshipped  by  all  silk-makers  as  a  sort 
of  patron  saint.  "  The  Great  Yu  "  is  a  prominent 
figure  in  the  early  history  of  Sian.  In  b.c.  2286  Yu 
was  assigned  by  the  Emperor  Yau  to  the  task  of 
stemming  an  inundation  of  the  Yellow  River  and 
the  Wei  Ho,  which  had  overflowed  nearly  all  of 
Shensi.  "The  waters,"  said  Yau,  "envelop  the 
mountains  and  rise  higher  than  the  hills.  They 
threaten  the  heavens  so  that  the  people  complain." 
It  was  eight  years  before  Yu  completed  his  task  of 
turning  back  the  waters  into  their  original  channels. 
He  obtained  the  idea  of  a  drainage-system  from  the 
marks  on  the  back  of  a  turtle  and  divided  the  coun- 
try into  nine  districts,  which  were  subsequently  en- 
larged into  provinces.    Shensi  he  called  Kuanchung, 

162 


SIAN   AND    THE    SIANESE 

a  name  by  which  it  is  sometimes  known  to  this  day. 
Wu  Wang,  who  founded  the  Chow  dynasty,  reigned 
in  Sian  in  b.c.  1122.  In  the  days  of  Wu  and  his 
son  Chung  ambassadors  from  distant  countries 
brought  presents  to  the  "  glorious  emperors "  in 
Sian.  We  are  told  that  a  king  who  ruled  some- 
where in  the  Malay  peninsula  sent  a  "  white  pheas- 
ant," which  may  be  the  first  record  of  a  White 
Cochin  chicken. 

In  the  reign  of  Chung  or  Shih  Hwang-ti,  b.c 
246,  Sian  probably  reached  the  zenith  of  its  power 
and  prosperity.  Chung  has  been  called  the  Napo- 
leon of  China.  He  built  the  Great  Wall,  cut  canals, 
opened  roads,  and  solidified  the  scattered  provinces 
which  make  up  the  Empire  of  to-day.  In  and 
around  Sian,  Chung  built  a  series  of  palaces  whose 
splendour  and  magnificence  has  never  been  rivalled 
by  any  of  his  successors.  At  one  palace  at  Hein 
Yang,  about  twenty  miles  from  Sian,  he  collected 
all  the  furniture  and  jewels  of  the  kings  who  had 
submitted  to  him.  Chung's  grave  is  near  Lintoun. 
From  B.C.  206  to  a.d.  25  the  emperors  of  the  first 
Han  dynasty  occupied  the  dragon  throne  in  Sian. 
This  was  China's  "  Elizabethan  age,"  when  arts  and 
literature  flourished,  when  the  love  of  learning 
which  Chung  had  crushed  was  revived,  and  when 
the  thirteen  classics  of  Confucius  were  cut  in  stone 
and  were  set  up  in  the  Hall  of  Tablets.  The  first 
Hans  did  much  to  enlarge  the  Empire.  Their 
armies  pushed  across  Central  Asia  to  the  Caspian 

163 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

and  brought  back  to  Sian  stories  of  the  Romans, 
who  lived  to  the  westward,  "who  are  simple  and 
upright,  and  who  never  have  two  prices  for  their 
goods."*  By  a  strange  coincidence  the  Emperor 
who  ruled  in  Sian  at  the  time  of  the  birth  of  Christ 
was  Ping  ti,  which  means  the  "  Emperor  of  Peace." 
Sian  was  captured  and  burned  by  Kwang  Wu 
Ti,  of  the  second  Han  dynasty,  but  it  was  almost 
immediately  rebuilt,  and  was  again  the  capital  of  the 
Empire  during  the  Sui  and  Tang  dynasties  from  589 
to  906.  Yang  Kien  was  the  first  emperor  of  the  Sui. 
For  several  hundred  years  before  his  time  China  had 
been  divided  into  two  empires  ;  the  one  over  which 
Yang  Kien  ruled  was  supreme  in  Shensi  and  Shansi, 
while  the  capital  of  the  other  was  at  Nanking,  on 
the  Yangtse.  There  came  a  day  in  590  when  How 
Chu,  emperor  of  the  south,  was  led  in  triumph  as 
prisoner  through  the  streets  of  Sian  and  was  forced 
to  worship  Yang  Kien's  ancestors  in  his  "  Palace  of 
the  Long  Lived  Benevolence."  Tai  Tsung,  "  the 
glorious,"  reigned  in  Sian  in  630.  He  drove  back 
the  barbarians  of  the  west  and  north  and  founded  a 
university  in  Sian  which  became  famous  all  over 
Eastern  Asia.  Young  princes  from  Corea  and 
Japan  and  Turkestan  were  sent  to  Sian  to  be  edu- 
cated. It  was  Tai  Tsung  who  said,  "  If  a  ruler  re- 
frains from  extravagance,  makes  the  taxes  light,  and 
sees  that  his  people  have  more  than  enough  for  their 
daily  needs,  and  appoints  high-minded  magistrates 

*  Williams'  Historical  Chapters,  page  29. 
164 


SIAN   AND   THE    SIANESE 

to  rule  over  them,  the  country  will  be  at  peace  and 
theft  and  robbery  will  disappear  from  society."* 

The  Mongols  never  took  very  kindly  to  Sian. 
Kublai  Khan  made  Pekin  the  capital  in  1264,  and 
appointed  his  son,  Mang  Kola,  governor  of  Shensi, 
Sichuan,  and  Tibet.  Sian  was  made  the  provincial 
capital.  Five  miles  from  the  city  Mong  Kola  built 
a  palace,  which  Marco  Polo  says  was  "  embellished 
with  many  fountains  and  rivulets,  both  within  and 
on  the  outside  of  the  buildings."  f 

When  the  Ming  dynasty  in  1630  was  no  longer 
able  to  repel  the  encroachments  of  the  Manchus,  a 
man  of  Shensi  named  Li  Tsi  Chung  started  a  rebel- 
lion whose  avowed  object  was  to  overthrow  the 
reigning  house  and  to  save  China  from  the  Manchu 
barbarians.  Li  captured  Sian  and  there  established 
the  capital  of  a  new  dynasty  which  he  called  the 
Tai  Tsing.  All  of  Northeastern  China  acknowl- 
edged Li  as  Emperor,  and  at  the  head  of  a  large 
army  he  marched  on  Pekin  in  1643.  Its  gates 
were  opened  to  him  ;  the  Emperor  Chwang  Lieh 
Ti  committed  suicide,  and  a  Sian  dynasty  once 
more  ruled  over  China.  But  Li's  triumph  was 
short-lived.  The  scattered  remnants  of  the  Ming 
party  persuaded  the  Manchus  to  aid  them  in  driv- 
ing Li  from  the  throne.  The  allied  armies  com- 
pelled him  to  retreat  from  Pekin  to  Sian,  where  he 
made  a   last  stand.     Again    he  was  defeated,  and 

*  McGowan's  History  of  China,  page  295. 
f  Marco  Polo's  Travels,  Wright's  translation,  page  249. 
165 


THROUGH    HIDDEN   SHENSI 

with  a  handful  of  followers  fled  into  the  wilderness 
south  of  Tung  Kwan.  Here  he  was  killed  by  a 
party  of  farmers  who  were  tired  of  the  ,  troubles 
which  his  wars  had  brought  on  the  country.  With 
his  death  the  last  opposition  to  the  present  Ts'ing 
dynasty  disappeared,  but  it  is  worth  noticing  that 
Sian  was  the  last  place  of  importance  in  China  to 
acknowledge  the  supremacy  of  the  Manchus. 

The  fact  that  Sian  has  always  been  is  its  pecul- 
iar and  unique  charm.  During  the  long  centuries 
Sian  has  been  besieged  and  taken  and  sacked  and  re- 
built times  without  number.  Within  its  walls  kings 
have  been  assassinated,  and  dynasties  overthrown, 
but  the  old  city  has  lived  on.  It  is  this  eternity  of 
things  that  for  a  modern  from  Europe  or  America 
gives  to  Sian  a  strange  fascination.  The  Sianese 
have  a  reckless  way  of  referring  to  lapses  of  time 
that  seems  hardly  human.  In  listening  to  accounts 
of  occurrences  in  the  reign  of  Hwang  Ti,  discussed 
as  familiarly  as  though  they  had  happened  fifty  years 
ago,  I  began  to  realise  what  De  Quincey  meant 
when  he  said  in  an  opium-flash,  "  If  I  were  com- 
pelled to  forego  England  and  to  live  in  China  and 
among  Chinese  manners  and  modes  of  life  and 
scenery,  I  should  go  mad."  In  Sian  they  tell  you 
anecdotes  of  Fu  hi  and  Shen-nung,  who  succeeded 
him.  Mr.  Shen-nung  had  a  glass-stomach,  through 
which  he  was  wont  to  study  the  process  of  diges- 
tion of  different  herbs  and  vegetables.  From  the 
result  of   his  observations  he   devised   recipes  for 

i66 


SIAN   AND   THE    SIANESE 

various  dishes  that  are  eaten  with  the  chop-sticks 
to-day.  Mr.  Shen-nung's  free  clinic,  where  he  lect- 
ured on  the  subject  of  his  study  of  his  interior,  was 
in  Sian,  and  an  old  scholar  who  showed  me  about 
town  talked  of  the  "  Shen-nung  treatment "  quite  as 
nonchalantly  as  we  might  speak  of  the  experiments 
of  Dr.  Koch  or  Pasteur.  The  parade-ground  of  the 
Shensi  troops  is  on  the  site  of  the  palace  of  Chung, 
the  great  wall-builder,  whose  reign  was  contempo- 
rary with  Alexander  the  Great.  A  curio-dealer  tried 
to  sell  me  some  pieces  of  baked  clay  which  he  said 
were  bricks  from  Chung's  palace.  I  asked  a  Sian 
man  whether  he  thought  they  were  genuine.  "  They 
probably  are  counterfeits,"  he  replied,  "  but  even  if 
they  are  real  they  are  not  old  enough  to  be  interest- 
ing." 

The  present  population  of  Sian,  like  that  of 
most  Chinese  cities,  cannot  be  determined  with  ac- 
curacy. The  local  officials  estimate  that  before  the 
recent  famine  it  contained  a  million  inhabitants. 
This  was  probably  something  of  an  exaggeration. 
Perhaps  seven  hundred  thousand  would  be  an  ap- 
proximate estimate  of  its  present  population. 

A  fault  common  to  many  Chinese  cities  is  the 
lack  of  anything  like  plan  or  system  in  the  arrange- 
ment of  their  streets.  No  matter  how  great  may  be 
the  population  of  a  town,  it  seldom  presents  to  West- 
ern eyes  the  appearance  of  a  metropolis.  Streets 
and  alleys  usually  straggle  blindly  in  all  directions 
without  plan  or  method.     But  Sian  is  an  exception 

167 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

to  the  rule  of  disorder.  While  its  streets  have  no 
sidewalks,  they  are  all  wide  and  extend  across  the 
city  from  wall  to  wall.  They  always  intersect  at 
right  angles  and  the  principal  thoroughfares  are 
paved  with  stone-blocks  that,  from  centuries  of  use, 
are  much  worn  and  furrowed.  Because  it  is  so  com- 
pact and  the  arrangement  of  its  streets  so  regular, 
Sian  is  a  far  more  imposing-looking  city  than  Pekin. 
This  fact  the  Sianese  thoroughly  appreciate  and 
often  ask  strangers  if  they  are  not  more  favourably 
impressed  with  Sian  than  with  the  Manchu  capital. 

In  the  centre  of  the  city,  in  front  of  the  gov- 
ernor's residence,  is  the  public  square,  where  a  fair 
is  continuously  in  progress  from  sunrise  to  sunset. 
The  sides  of  the  square  are  lined  with  the  tents  and 
booths  of  peddlers,  jugglers,  fortune-tellers,  and 
amusement-makers  of  every  description  known  to 
Shensi.  Late  in  the  afternoon,  after  the  day's  work 
is  done,  the  square  is  filled  by  a  laughing,  happy 
crowd,  which  passes  from  one  booth  to  another  ap- 
plauding the  various  shows  and  throwing  cash  to 
the  performers. 

It  was  in  the  plaza  that  I  first  saw  the  Chinese 
version  of  Punch  and  Judy.  Wooden  figures  of  a 
man  and  woman  were  manipulated  from  behind  a 
screen.  They  quarrelled  and  took  delight  in  cut- 
ting off  each  other's  heads.  Their  operator  con- 
ducted the  dialogue  in  the  same  falsetto  voice  that 
English  Punch-and-Judy  men  have  made  familiar 
to  Americans.     But  the  most  interesting  of  all  the 

i68 


A    OLIIET    STREET SI  AN. 


THI-:   rr lu.tc  souaki-: — siax. 


SIAN    AND    THE    SIANESE 

shows  was  the  booth  of  one  whom  the  natives  called 
a  "  story-teller."  During  the  greater  part  of  the 
time  the  story-teller  sat  demurely  on  a  stool  appar- 
ently taking  little  interest  in  passing  events,  but 
suddenly,  without  any  warning,  he  would  leap  on  a 
platform  and  begin  shouting  out  something  in  a 
loud  voice,  accompanying  his  harangue  with  vigour- 
ous  gestures.  At  the  beginning  of  each  perform- 
ance he  set  his  face  in  a  grimace  which  completely 
concealed  his  natural  expression  like  a  mask  and 
which  he  never  changed  until  the  story  was  finished. 
At  times  he  told  jokes  and  gave  conundrums  for 
the  crowd  to  answer,  interspersed  with  favourite 
quotations  from  the  classics,  and  occasionally  he 
varied  the  performance  by  a  burlesque  of  a  char- 
acter or  type  with  which  his  listeners  were  familiar. 
An  imitation  of  an  old  mandarin  which  I  witnessed 
under  the  awning  of  a  story-teller's  booth  was  one 
of  the  cleverest  bits  of  "  take-off  "  I  have  seen  any- 
where. Although  I  did  not  understand  a  word 
of  the  monologue,  I  recognised  the  character  in- 
stantly. 

In  the  northwestern  part  of  Sian  is  the  Mo- 
hammedan quarter.  It  contains  two  mosques  and 
schools  for  the  study  of  the  Koran.  Religion  is 
the  only  difference  which  distinguishes  followers  of 
the  Prophet  from  other  citizens  of  Sian.  Moham- 
medan mothers  are  quite  as  punctilious  as  are  Budd- 
hist and  Taoist  in  binding  the  feet  of  their  daughters. 
Men  of  the  established  religions  have  constant  busi- 

169 


THROUGH    HIDDEN   SHENSI 

ness-dealings  with  Mohammedan  merchants  whose 
shops  are  scattered  all  over  the  city.  When  it  is 
remembered  that  only  a  few  years  ago  these  same 
Mohammedans  tried  to  gain  the  dragon-throne  for 
Islam  and  killed  thousands  of  helpless  Shensi  vil- 
lagers, the  peace  and  security  in  which  they  live  in 
Sian  go  a  long  way  to  make  one  question  whether 
the  Chinese  are  really  possessed  of  all  the  fanatical 
prejudice  against  imported  religion  with  which  they 
are  usually  accredited.  The  Chinese  assertion  that 
Mussulmans  have  long  dwelt  in  Sian  is  strengthened 
by  the  fact  that  Marco  Polo  mentions  "  Saracens  " 
as  one  of  the  religious  sects  to  be  found  in  Sian  in 
the  thirteenth  century.  He  frequently  refers  to  the 
"  Saracens "  of  Tartary  and  India,  but  his  descrip- 
tion of  the  capital  of  Shensi  contains  the  only  men- 
tion of  Mohammedans  to  be  found  anywhere  in  his 
account  of  the  Eighteen  Provinces. 

The  Broadway  of  Sian  extends  from  the  north- 
ern to  the  southern  gate  close  to  the  eastern  wall. 
Many  of  the  shops  which  line  it  are  very  large,  and 
the  stock  of  merchandise  they  expose  for  sale  is  large 
and  varied.  In  neither  the  shops  nor  their  contents 
is  there  so  much  of  the  bazar-effect  as  in  Shanghai 
and  some  of  the  southern  cities.  Silver  jewelry, 
ivory  carvings,  and  bits  of  jade  are  seldom  sold  over 
Sian  counters.  The  demand  seems  to  be  for  things 
of  a  more  substantial  character,  like  silk,  cotton- 
cloth,  and  tea.  Because  of  its  nearness  to  the  moun- 
tain wilderness  of   Kansuh  and  Tibet,  where  wild 

170 


SIAN    AND    THE   SIANESE 

animals  abound,  Sian  is  the  centre  and  shipping- 
point  for  the  fur-trade  of  the  northwest  provinces. 
Shensi  is  the  source  of  supply  for  the  mink  and 
otter-skins  which  mandarins  all  over  the  Empire  use 
for  the  linings  of  their  official  robes.  For  several 
blocks  the  long  street  is  devoted  to  a  market  for 
furs.  The  prices  at  which  they  are  sold  seem  to  an 
American  ridiculously  low.  Ten  taels  (seven  dollars) 
will  purchase  a  large  leopard-skin.  Sian  has  one 
department-store  called  the  "  shop  of  the  metropo- 
lis." It  was  described  to  me  as  a  place  where 
foreign  goods  were  sold,  but  on  visiting  it  I  found 
that  the  only  things  not  of  Chinese  origin  which  it 
contained  were  a  few  cakes  of  French  scented  soap 
and  about  ten  packages  of  American  cigarettes. 

Sian  has  long  been  famous  all  over  China  for 
its  banks.  In  Pekin,  the  Sianese  are  sometimes  re- 
ferred to  as  the  "  banking  men."  On  a  street 
that  extends  westward  from  the  public  square  about 
half  a  mile  are  nearly  a  score  of  banks,  whose  busi- 
ness amounts  to  many  millions  of  taels  annually. 
Banks  like  those  of  the  present  day  have  existed  in 
Sian  for  thousands  of  years,  and  yet  the  system  on 
which  their  business  has  always  been  conducted  is 
verv  similar  to  that  of  the  United  States.  In  all 
large  cities  of  the  empire  Sian  banks  have  correspon- 
dents with  whom  they  keep  funds  on  deposit,  and 
against  them  they  issue  sight-drafts  and  sell  bills  of 
exchange.  The  rate  of  exchange  depends  upon  the 
remoteness  of  the  bank  against  which  the  draft  is 

171 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

issued  and  the  difficulty  of  its  collection.  A  Shensi 
draft  is  made  payable  to  bearer,  but  the  bank  on 
which  it  is  drawn  will  never  pay  it  until  the  man 
who  presents  it  is  satisfactorily  identified.  Sian 
banks  pay  interest  on  commercial  accounts,  although 
few  merchants  allow  their  deposits  to  reach  an  amount 
lararer  than  the  immediate  needs  of  their  business. 
Their  reserve-funds  and  profits  are  usually  invested 
in  other  ways.  Banks  also  issue  promissory-notes 
in  denominations  of  5,000  and  10,000  cash  which 
pass  current  as  money  everywhere  in  Shensi. 

But  if  there  is  a  similarity  in  the  banking-sys- 
tems of  Sian  and  New  York,  there  is  a  vast  differ- 
ence in  methods.  Down  the  side  of  a  Sian  banking- 
room  extends  a  long  counter,  at  one  end  of  which 
are  the  scales  for  weighing  taels.  Behind  the  coun- 
ter sit  the  clerks,  each  with  his  computing-board  in 
front  of  him.  If  you  ask  any  clerk  to  tell  you  what 
will  be  the  amount  of  exchange  on  a  certain  number 
of  Hankow  taels  at  four  and  seven-eights  per  cent, 
he  at  once  begins  to  move  the  wooden  balls  up  and 
down  the  rods  of  his  computing-board.  His  fingers 
fly  over  it  in  a  sort  of  lightning  backgammon  which 
lasts  for  about  a  minute,  and  then  he  answers  your 
inquiry  correctly  down  to  the  thousandths  of  a  tael 
cent.  In  making  a  computation  a  Sianese  bank- 
clerk  never  uses  a  piece  of  paper  or  makes  a  figure. 
He  does  it  all  with  his  fingers  and  his  Chinese  brain. 
To  me  the  strangest  thing  about  a  Sian  bank  was 
the  simplicity  of  its  book-keeping.     As  soon  as  a 

172 


SIAN    AND    THE   SIANESE 

transaction  of  any  kind  is  concluded,  the  clerk  writes 
a  few  characters  with  a  marking-brush  in  a  book 
which  lies  on  a  table  behind  the  counter.  It 
makes  no  difference  whether  it  is  the  sale  of  a  bill 
of  exchange,  or  the  receipt  of  a  deposit,  or  the  pay- 
ment of  interest,  the  entry  is  always  made  in  that 
one  book,  and  yet  by  referring  to  it  a  Sian  banker 
can  always  give  you  a  statement  of  your  account 
quite  as  readily  and  accurately  as  can  any  book- 
keeper in  New  York.  If  the  time  should  ever 
come  when  Chinese  methods  are  studied  in  detail, 
it  would  be  interesting  to  learn  how  a  large  and  in- 
tricate banking-business  can  be  successfully  con- 
ducted with  one  brown-paper  book. 

How  the  7,000,000  of  Shensi's  inhabitants 
have  been  able  for  5,000  years  to  get  along  with- 
out a  post-office  is  another  interesting  problem  that 
awaits  a  satisfactory  explanation.  In  the  entire 
province  there  is  no  provision  for  sending  or  receiv- 
ing letters.  When  it  is  necessary  for  a  merchant  in 
Sian  to  send  a  letter  to  a  correspondent  in  Han- 
kow, he  pays  a  muleteer  of  a  caravan  to  carry  his 
letter  to  its  destination.  Missionaries  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Sian,  occasionally  hire  a  courier  to 
carry  their  mail  to  the  nearest  post-office  in  Tai 
Yuan,  300  miles  to  the  northward  in  Shansi. 
These  are  really  the  only  two  methods  by  which  it 
is  possible  for  a  citizen  of  Sian  to  communicate  by 
letter  with  the  outer  world.  The  postal  system 
inaugurated  by  Sir  Robert  Hart  has  now  extended 

173 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

through  most  of  the  eighteen  provinces.  In  Si- 
chuen,  for  example,  a  line  of  government  post- 
offices  extends  almost  to  the  borders  of  Tibet. 

But  Shensi  is  unalterably  opposed  to  a  post- 
office.  Sian  has  frequently  been  sounded  on  the 
subject  by  the  foreign  ofhce  in  Pekin,  and  the  an- 
swer has  always  been  strongly  in  the  negative.  A 
large  part  of  the  opposition  of  the  Sianese  to  a  regu- 
lar mail  service  can  be  ascribed  to  their  dislike  of  let- 
ters. Nine-tenths  of  the  citizens  of  Sian  never  write 
a  letter  from  one  year's  end  to  the  other.  A  letter 
is  a  means  of  communication  with  the  outer  world. 
To  a  certain  extent  it  would  bring  the  Sons  of  Han 
into  touch  with  the  foreigner,  and  is  therefore  to  be 
avoided  as  a  dangerous  thing.  The  only  institution 
of  foreign  origin  in  Sian  is  the  telegraph-office. 
The  single  wire  of  the  Chinese  Imperial  Telegraph 
now  penetrates  the  most  remote  districts  of  the 
Middle  Kingdom,  and  over  it  are  daily  transmitted 
the  government-edicts  and  the  orders  to  the  man- 
darins, but,  apart  from  these,  two  messages  a  month 
constitute  a  large  business  for  a  telegraph-office  in 
an  interior  town  of  200,000  inhabitants.  The 
"  wire  on  the  poles  "  is  heartily  disliked  by  most 
Shensi  farmers,  who  regard  it  as  the  abode  of  an 
evil  spirit,  and  one  of  the  first  acts  of  the  Boxers 
was  to  destroy  the  line  for  hundreds  of  miles. 
Sian's  telegraph-office  was  established  about  eight 
years  ago,  but  no  one  ever  took  it  very  seriously 
until  the  arrival  of  the  exiled  court,  when  it  at  once 

174 


SIAN    AND    THE    SIANESE 

became  the  medium  by  which  the  Empress  Dow- 
ager could  daily  scold  Li  Hung  Chang  and  Prince 
Ching  in  Pekin.  The  fact  that  the  telegraph  was 
used  by  the  Emperor  gave  it  a  popularity  with 
merchants  and  bankers  that  it  had  never  enjoyed 
before.  When  I  visited  Sian  the  telegraph-office 
employed  four  operators,  one  of  whom  enjoyed  the 
distinction  of  being  the  only  Chinaman  in  the  city 
who  could  speak  English.  He  had  been  brought 
from  Nanking  at  the  time  of  the  peace-negotia- 
tions, in  order  to  facilitate  the  transmission  of  gov- 
ernment-messages to  representatives  of  the  foreign 
allies. 

The  southern  part  of  Sian  contains  the  resi- 
dences of  its  Four  Hundred.  The  exteriors  of  their 
houses  give  little  idea  of  the  beauty  of  the  interiors. 
A  gateway  in  a  low  wall  on  the  street  opens  into  a 
court-yard,  in  which  is  usually  a  fountain  or  a  gold- 
fish pond.  The  house  stands  at  the  rear  of  the 
court-yard,  with  wings  extending  around  three  sides 
of  it.  The  furniture  in  the  house  of  a  rich  man  is 
always  of  sandal-wood  or  teak.  In  the  corners  of 
the  rooms  are  draperies  of  gaily  coloured  silk,  and  on 
cabinets  against  the  wall  are  rare  specimens  of  porce- 
lains, many  of  them  quite  as  valuable  in  China  as  they 
would  be  in  New  York.  The  collecting  of  "  peach- 
blows"  and  "  Kiang  Hi  blues"  is  the  favourite  fad 
of  most  Sianese  men  of  wealth.  Because  of  the 
severity  of  Sian  winters,  houses  of  the  better  class 
are  heated  by  a  system  of  hot  air,  which  antedates 

175 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

an  American  furnace  by  several  thousand  years. 
On  the  outside  of  the  house,  close  to  the  wall,  is  a 
covered  pit  about  five  feet  deep  and  four  feet 
square.  Just  below  the  surface  of  the  ground  is  a 
row  of  apertures  that  connect  with  a  series  of 
copper-lined  wooden  troughs  extending  under  the 
stone  or  brick  floors  of  the  house.  During  the 
winter  months  a  fire  is  kept  constantly  burning 
in  the  pit  and  the  heat  rising  from  it  circulates 
through  the  flue-troughs.  As  timber  is  scarce  in 
Shensi,  wood  is  seldom  used  for  fuel.  Anthracite 
coal  of  an  excellent  quality  is  brought  on  flat  boats 
up  the  Wei  Ho  from  Shansi  and  is  sold  at  a  rea- 
sonable price  in  Sian. 

Sian,  too,  has  its  club  and  clubmen.  Besides 
the  societies  of  scholars  and  students  to  be  found  in 
all  large  Chinese  cities,  there  are  clubs  whose  mem- 
bership is  composed  of  coteries  of  men  of  different 
sorts  and  conditions  on  much  the  same  plan  as  in 
the  United  States.  There  is  the  club  of  "the  civil 
officials"  and  the  "Military  Club,"  besides  several 
others,  exclusive  and  expensive,  whose  members  are 
nearly  all  mandarins'  sons  or  rich  young  men  about 
town.  As  a  convenience  for  merchants  and  business 
men  whose  commercial  interests  may  bring  them  to 
Sian  from  distant  parts  of  the  Empire,  the  rich 
residents  of  the  city  provide  "  Clubs  of  the  Prov- 
inces." These  occupy  large  buildings  in  the  heart 
of  the  city.  Each  one  is  for  the  exclusive  use  of 
men  from  the  province  after  which  it  is  named.     A 

176 


SIAN   AND    THE    SIANESE 

fur-buyer  from  Hankow  would  be  put  up  at  the 
Hupeh  Club.  A  Pekin  correspondent  of  a  Sian 
bank  would  go  to  the  Chili  Club.  At  the  club  of 
his  province  an  out-of-town  visitor  is  expected  to 
make  his  headquarters  during  his  stay  in  Sian.  He 
engages  a  room  in  the  club-house,  and  uses  it  as 
a  place  for  receiving  men  with  whom  he  has  busi- 
ness dealings. 

If  it  be  true  that  "  society  is  not  society  without 
women,"  then  there  is  no  '*  society  "  in  Sian.  Wives 
and  daughters  rarely  appear  in  public,  and  even  in 
their  own  homes  they  are  never  allowed  to  meet 
any  men  who  may  call  on  their  husbands  or 
brothers.  The  more  rich  and  prosperous  a  man 
may  become  the  more  he  will  invariably  seclude  the 
women  of  his  family.  The  very  few  women  to  be 
met  with  in  the  streets  of  Sian  all  belong  to  the 
poorer  class  of  the  population.  But  if  there  is  no 
"society"  in  Sian,  there  is  no  lack  of  old  families. 
It  is  doubtful  if  family-trees  older  than  those  of  Sian 
can  be  found  anywhere  on  earth.  Among  the 
Sianese  of  to-day  are  a  number  of  families  in  whose 
veins  flow  the  blood  of  the  men  who  helped  to 
place  the  first  Han  dynasty  on  the  throne.  As  a 
part  of  the  worship  of  their  ancestors  the  Chinese 
lay  great  stress  on  their  lineage  and  keep  close 
account  of  the  names  of  all  the  great  men  of  previ- 
ous generations  from  whom  they  can  claim  descent. 
In  the  course  of  a  conversation  about  some  man 
who  played  a  prominent  part  in  the  early  history  of 

177 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSl 

China,  it  is  not  at  all  unusual  for  the  resident  of 
Sian  with  whom  you  are  talking  to  add,  "  He  was 
my  ancestor." 

The  Sianese  do  not  take  kindly  to  amuse- 
ments of  a  light  or  frivolous  character.  The  thea- 
tre is  much  less  a  factor  in  the  social  life  of  the  cap- 
ital of  Shensi  than  it  is  in  some  of  the  other  large 
cities.  As  a  rule  there  are  few  things  that  a  China- 
man enjoys  more  keenly  than  a  clanging,  discordant 
performance  at  a  theatre.  But  in  Sian  I  fre- 
quently heard  the  stage  spoken  of  disparagingly. 
Several  men  assured  me  that  they  never  went  to  the 
theatre  because  Confucius  had  expressed  his  dis- 
approval of  it.  The  most  frequent  social  functions 
in  Sian  are  the  evening  dinner-parties.  For  the 
purpose  the  host  usually  engages  a  room  at  a  restau- 
rant or  in  his  club.  The  number  of  his  guests  is 
seldom  more  than  twenty.  A  dinner  of  this  kind 
usually  lasts  half  the  night.  The  twelve  or  fifteen 
courses  are  eaten  very  slowly  and  are  interspersed 
with  long  discussions  of  a  very  serious  character. 

When  I  visited  Sian  it  was  just  beginning  to  re- 
cover from  one  of  the  worst  famines  of  the  century. 
Less  than  six  months  previous  to  my  arrival  human 
flesh  had  been  sold  as  food  on  its  streets,  and  thou- 
sands of  men  and  women  had  died  of  hunger  in 
one  suburb.  Not  since  the  Mohammedan  rebellion 
had  Sian  known  so  much  poverty,  wretchedness,  and 
suffering  as  followed  in  the  wake  of  the  famine  of 
1900,  and  at  no  time  during  the  last  thirty  years 

178 


SIAN    AND    THE    SIANESE 

would  it  have  been  possible  to  see  Sian  under  worse 
conditions  than  existed  there  when  I  reached  it 
after  a  ride  of  twenty-seven  days  from  Pekin.  Yet 
in  all  that  vast  old  city,  with  its  crowded  population, 
its  diversified  interests  and  occupations,  there  was  no 
slum.  There  was  no  street  that  corresponded  in  any 
way  to  what  we  would  term  a  "  poor  quarter."  By 
the  roadsides  outside  of  the  city  were  the  caves  where 
hundreds  of  wretches  had  died  of  hunger.  But  the 
sufferings  of  the  dwellers  in  the  caves  were  due  to  a 
special  and  extraordinary  cause,  a  famine  that  had 
followed  a  drought.  The  famine-victims  were  not 
the  sort  of  "poor"  whom  the  Sianese  could  be  said 
to  "have  always  with  them." 

Under  ordinary  conditions  almost  every  human 
being  within  the  walls  of  Sian  has  a  house  to  live 
in  and  is  comfortably  clothed.  Almost  the  only 
exceptions  are  opium  victims.  A  ride  over  the 
whole  of  Sian  reveals  no  evidences  of  that  habitu- 
ally hopeless,  heart-broken,  degraded  portion  of  the 
community  who  swarm  in  tenements  on  East  Side 
alleys  in  New  York,  who  are  always  a  "necessary 
evil,"  and  are  sometimes  described  as  "submerged." 
I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  there  is  anything  like 
an  equality  of  wealth  in  Sian.  On  the  contrary, 
among  the  mandarins,  merchants,  and  bankers  are  a 
score  of  men  who  would  be  accounted  rich  any- 
where in  the  world.  But  this  fact  makes  it  all  the 
more  curious  that,  while  there  should  be  some  men 
in  Sian  whom  we  would  call  "very  rich,"  there  are 

179 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

almost  none  to  whom  the  term  "very  poor"  could 
be  applied  in  the  sense  in  which  it  is  understood  in 
Christendom.  Between  the  richest  man  whose 
villa  is  near  the  south  wall  and  the  poorest  inhabi- 
tant of  Sian  there  is  not  so  wide  a  gulf  of  difference 
in  education,  opportunity,  and  environment  as  ex- 
ists between  a  Fifth  Avenue  millionaire  and  the 
tenant  of  a  Bowery  lodging-house. 

As  a  race  the  Chinese  are  natural  gamblers. 
They  seem  by  instinct  to  have  a  passion  for  games 
of  chance.  In  the  villages  the  farmers  will  sit  for 
hours  over  a  game  played  with  cash,  similar  to  San 
Francisco  fan-tan.  Men  of  means  bet  on  games  of 
dominoes,  and  even  the  process  of  drawing  good  or 
bad  luck  before  the  idols  is  a  kind  of  religious  lot- 
tery. But  there  are  no  gambling-houses  or  public 
games  in  Sian.  Gambling  is  not  only  prohibited  by 
law,  but  the  law  is  enforced.  Shensi  missionaries 
have  told  me  that  nothing  is  considered  more  dis- 
graceful in  a  mandarin's  administration  than  his 
failure  to  suppress  public  gambling  within  his  dis- 
trict. Many  of  the  mandarin's  faults  may  be  con- 
doned by  his  superiors,  but  should  a  gambling-house 
exist  anywhere  within  his  jurisdiction  he  would 
"  lose  his  face  "  for  life,  and  would  probably  be  ban- 
ished or  imprisoned. 

There  are  plenty  of  shops  in  Sian  where  liquor  is 
sold,  but  there  are  no  saloons.  A  man  may  pur- 
chase a  bottle  of  sam-shaw  to  drink  very  sparingly 
at  home.       But  only  at  large  feasts  or  dinner-par- 

i8o 


SIAN   AND   THE   SIAMESE 

ties  does  he  drink  liquor  in  public,  and  even  on 
these  occasions  he  would  bring  lasting  disgrace 
upon  his  family  and  relatives  if  he  were  to  drink 
to  excess. 

There  are  no  "  dives "  in  Sian,  no  haunts  of 
crime  and  human  degradation,  neither  are  there  any 
rendezvous  of  gilded  vice  and  dissipation.  Places 
of  this  character  exist  in  China,  only  in  foreign 
concessions,  in  treaty  ports,  where  they  are  beyond 
the  reach  of  Chinese  law.  Perhaps  the  saddest 
commentary  I  have  ever  heard  on  our  civilisation 
was  the  remark  of  a  fine  old  Mohammedan  tea- 
merchant,  with  whom  I  became  quite  well  ac- 
quainted in  Sian.  In  his  shop,  near  the  north  gate, 
we  had  been  talking  one  afternoon  about  the 
Mohammedan  rebellion  that  had  come  very  near 
succeeding,  but  had  failed.  My  friend  said  that  he 
no  longer  considered  the  triumph  of  Islam  prob- 
able in  China  because  the  nations  who  recognised 
the  Prophet  were  not  strong  or  powerful  enough 
to  make  an  impression  on  Confucian  civilisation. 
"  For  my  part,"  he  continued,  "  I  should  rather  like 
to  see  the  Christians  overthrow  the  idols  and  con- 
vert China  to  the  worship  of  the  *  One  God,'  but," 
he  added,  "the  only  trouble  is  if  Sian  were  a  Chris- 
tian city,  it  would  be  as  bad  as  Shanghai." 

I  shall  not  weary  the  reader  with  any  theory 
of  my  own  as  to  why  these  "  necessary  evils  "  of  a 
Christian  metropolis  are  unknown  in  an  ancient 
and  hidden  city  of  China.     If  a  native  of  Sian  had 

i8i 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

visited  New  York  and  were  trying  to  describe  it  to 
his  fellow-townsmen  on  his  return,  he  would  natu- 
rally refer  to  "submerged  tenths,"  and  gambling- 
houses  and  saloons,  as  phases  of  city  life  to  which 
he  was  unaccustomed,  and  that  consequently  seemed 
to  him  novel  and  curious.  I  experienced  a  corre- 
sponding feeling  of  surprise  and  interest  on  finding 
that  these  same  institutions  were  conspicuously 
absent  in  Sian.  I  would  not  be  telling  my  story 
honestly  and  fairly  if  I  described  only  things  and 
never  conditions.  I  have  no  desire  to  draw  com- 
parisons between  two  civilisations.  I  fully  appre- 
ciate that  the  reader  has  many  times  been  told  that 
the  Chinese  are  "  uncivilised "  and  that  they  are 
"the  Yellow  Peril." 


182 


CHAPTER    XIII 

SIAN    AND    THE    SIANESE—Contmued 

THE  importance  of  Sian  and  the  prominent 
part  it  has  played  in  Chinese  history  are 
imperfectly  understood  on  the  Western  side  of  the 
world.  Even  in  parts  of  China  as  remote  from 
Shensi  as  Pekin,  very  little  is  known  of  Sian. 
Shensi  is  separated  from  Tibet  only  by  the  prov- 
ince of  Kansuh,  and  Sian  is  often  referred  to  as  a 
city  of  the  border.  Only  during  the  last  twelve 
years  has  it  been  possible  for  foreigners  to  live  in 
Sian,  and  the  number  of  white  men  who  have  ever 
visited  it  can  be  counted  on  the  fingers  of  a  man's 
hand.  Even  to-day  no  foreign  resident  can  feel 
secure  in  Sian.  The  appointment  of  a  reactionary 
governor  or  an  outbreak  of  the  anti-foreign  element 
is  likely  at  any  time  to  result  in  all  foreigners  being 
ordered  out  of  the  city. 

In  the  itinerary  of  a  journey  from  Pekin  to 
Tibet,  Marco  Polo  describes  a  place  called  Kenzan,* 
which  commentators  have  generally  identified  as 
Sian.  Such  it  may  be,  but  my  own  experience  in 
travelling  over  the  same  route  pursued  by  Marco's 

*  Kenzan  is  the  name  given  to  this  somewhat  indeterminate  city  by 
Wright,  page  248.     According  to  Yule,  it  is  Kanren. 

183 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

imaginary  traveller  (for  it  is  only  charity  to  believe 
that  the  author  of  Marco  Polo's  travels  never 
visited  the  places  in  China  which  he  described)  has 
made  me  skeptical  of  his  statements  about  any- 
thing. It  seems  to  me  that  such  truth  as  is  to  be 
found  in  his  account  of  the  Eighteen  Provinces  is 
largely  confined  to  the  copious  foot-notes  of  his 
modern  editors.  Since  reading  the  fantastic  story 
of  the  "  Prince  of  Dor,"  whose  castle  at  "Thaigin  " 
was  somewhere  between  Ping  Yang  and  the  Yel- 
low River,  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  the  old 
Venetian  traveller  would  have  been  heartily  amused 
if  he  could  have  foreseen  the  seriousness  with 
which  his  yarns  have  been  interpreted  by  commen- 
tators of  subsequent  generations. 

"  Departing  from  Ka-chau-fu,"  says  Marco 
Polo,  "  and  proceeding  eight  days'  journey  in  a 
westerly  direction,  you  continually  meet  with  cities 
and  commercial  towns,  and  pass  many  gardens  and 
cultivated  grounds  with  abundance  of  the  mulberry 
or  tree  that  contributes  to  the  production  of  silk. 
At  the  end  of  those  eight  stages  you  arrive  at  the 
city  of  Kenzan,  which  was  anciently  the  capital  of  an 
extensive,  noble,  and  powerful  kingdom,  the  seat  of 
many  kings  highly  descended  and  distinguished  in 
arms."  *  The  most  diligent  inquiry  of  recent  com- 
mentators has  been  unable  to  discover  what  place  is 
meant  by  Ka-chau-fu.  No  silk  is  now  produced 
nearer  to  Sian  than  Lao  ho  Kieu,  in  Hupeh,  200 

*  Wright's  translation  of  Marco  Polo's  travels,  page  248. 
184 


SIAN    AND   THE   SIANESE 

miles  to  the  southward.  The  climate  of  Shensi  is 
too  cold  for  the  successful  cultivation  of  mulberry- 
trees.  The  climate  may  have  changed  since  Marco 
Polo's  time.  In  their  descriptions  of  the  Nestorian 
tablet,  both  Abbe  Hue  and  Professor  Legge  referred 
to  Sian,  but  neither  of  them  had  visited  it.  For  his 
copy  of  the  tablet-inscription,  Professor  Legge  was 
indebted  to  a  missionary  named  Jonathan  Lees,  who 
travelled  through  Shensi  in  1866.* 

For  more  than  twenty  years  the  Roman  Cath- 
olics have  maintained  a  small  chapel  in  Sian.  The 
resident  priests  have,  with  few  exceptions,  been  Chi- 
nese converts,  although  the  chapel  was  in  charge  of 
the  Italian  Dominicans  at  Kao-ling,  some  thirty-five 
miles  away.  About  fifteen  years  ago,  a  Protestant 
medical  missionary  opened  a  free  dispensary  in  Sian, 
and  tried  to  establish  a  mission.  A  mob  destroyed 
his  chapel  and  compelled  him  to  flee  for  his  life. 
During  the  three  years  which  followed,  the  anti- 
foreign  sentiment  was  so  strong  that  no  foreigner 
was  allowed  to  enter  Sian,  much  less  to  live  there. 
Such  were  the  conditions  when,  in  1890,  Mr.  Moir  B. 
Duncan,  of  the  British  Baptist  Missionary  Society, 
rode  through  the  streets  of  Sian,  hidden  away  in  a 
Chinese  cart  driven  by  a  native  convert.  At  first 
he  preached  in  a  suburb  outside  of  the  city-wall, 
but  within  a  year  he  was  allowed  to  rent  a  house  in 
the  centre  of  the  city.  Almost  from  the  first  Mr. 
Duncan  was  liked  by  the  provincial  officials.     He 

*  Christianity  in  China,  by  James  Legge,  page  34. 
185 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

held  a  series  of  public  debates  at  the  clubs  with  the 
ablest  scholars  of  the  city,  on  questions  of  astron- 
omy and  geography.  The  debates  were  largely 
attended  and  became  fashionable  with  young  man- 
darins and  the  men  who  surrounded  the  governor. 

Mr.  Duncan  opened  a  book-store  where  trans- 
lations of  the  writings  of  standard  English  and 
American  authors  were  sold.  In  1898,  as  the 
result  of  an  anti-foreign  outcry,  special  orders  were 
issued  by  the  governor  which  forbade  the  sale  of  so 
much  as  a  yard  of  cloth  made  in  any  other  country 
than  China ;  any  person  known  to  have  a  foreign- 
made  button  on  his  coat  was  punished  with  a  fine 
or  imprisonment,  and  the  sale  of  foreign-written 
books  was  prohibited,  but  the  order  in  no  way 
affected  Mr.  Duncan's  personal  popularity.  The 
Sianese  had  ceased  to  regard  him  as  a  foreigner,  and 
wad  grown  to  look  upon  him  as  one  of  themselves 
He  became  a  friend  of  the  governor  and  devised 
for  him  a  system  of  irrigating  the  arid  lands  in  the 
valley  of  the  Wei  Ho.  The  plan  would  have  been 
carried  out  had  it  not  been  for  the  Boxer  outbreak, 
which  compelled  Mr.  Duncan  to  leave  Shensi  along 
with  the  other  missionaries.  On  his  return,  in  July, 
1 90 1,  he  received  almost  an  ovation.  He  was  wel- 
comed as  a  beloved  citizen.  Although  he  always 
took  pains  never  to  criticise  or  interfere  with  the 
government,  his  advice  was  sought  by  mandarins  of 
the  highest  rank,  who  were  proud  to  call  him  their 
friend.     It  is  hardly  an  exaggeration   to  say  that 

186 


SIAN   AND    THE    SIANESE 

no  native  of  Shensi  in  private  life  was  more  promi- 
nent in  the  affairs  of  the  province  or  had  a  wider 
sphere  of  influence  than  the  missionary  whose 
kung  kwan  I  shared  for  three  weeks. 

I  reached  Sian  just  three  weeks  after  the  Em- 
press Dowager  and  the  court  had  left  it.  For  six 
months  the  capital  of  Shensi  had  been  the  centre  of 
all  the  fanatical,  the  reactionary,  and  the  anti-foreign 
elements  of  the  Empire.  In  Pekin  I  had  been  told 
that  "  a  white  man's  life  is  not  worth  five  taels  in 
the  Empress  Dowager's  place  of  exile."  These 
warnings  were  not  of  a  kind  calculated  to  prepare 
me  for  the  kindliness  and  consideration  I  met 
with  in  Sian  and  the  hospitality  shown  to  me  by 
almost  every  one  with  whom  I  came  in  contact.  In 
the  course  of  my  investigation  of  famine-conditions 
I  was  compelled  to  ride  all  over  the  city  and  to  make 
a  number  of  inquiries.  In  these  excursions  I  usually 
was  accompanied  only  by  my  interpreter  Wang. 
Not  only  was  I  never  molested  or  interfered  with, 
but  men  of  all  sorts  and  conditions  went  out  of 
their  way  to  assist  me  and  to  give  me  information. 

Whenever  I  had  occasion  to  enter  a  shop  or 
office,  the  proprietor  would  invariably  offer  me  a  cup 
of  tea,  and  would  ask  me  questions  about  my  journey 
and  the  mysterious  West  from  which  I  came.  The 
motive  which  prompted  the  inquiries  may  not  have 
been  any  real  curiosity  as  to  the  world  outside  of 
China.  It  was  more  an  act  of  friendliness  in  select- 
ing a  subject  of  conversation  that  might  interest  me. 

187 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

Several  men  whom  I  met  casually  in  my  wander- 
ings about  the  city  called  on  me  at  the  kung  kwan 
to  present  their  compliments  and  to  say  that  they 
had  been  pleased  to  make  my  acquaintance.  The 
courtesy  and  consideration  I  received  from  officials 
could  be  explained  as  a  mark  of  respect  to  Prince 
Ching's  card  and  as  an  expression  of  gratitude  to 
the  Americans  whose  generosity  had  kept  hundreds 
of  human  beings  from  starving ;  but  my  credentials 
and  my  connection  with  the  famine-fund  were  not 
known  to  the  Sianese  in  general.  Their  kindness 
may  be  attributed  to  the  fact  that  I  was  known  to 
be  a  friend  of  Mr.  Duncan,  and  was  therefore  not 
to  be  included  in  the  general  dislike  of  foreigners. 
The  unique  and  rather  extraordinary  position  of 
"the  missionary  of  Sian"  in  that  far-off  corner  of  the 
world  was  due  simply  to  the  fact  that  his  life  was 
an  exemplification  of  his  oft-expressed  belief  that 
"  a  man's  a  man  for  a'  that,"  no  matter  what  his 
colour  or  clothes  or  language.  I  have  spoken  of  him 
somewhat  at  length  not  only  because  of  the  great 
assistance  he  gave  to  me,  but  because  his  life  and 
work  in  Sian  were  an  illustration  of  the  fact  that 
although  China  is  still  on  a  silver-basis  the  practice 
of  the  golden  rule  is  quite  as  much  appreciated 
there  as  in  "enlightened"  countries  like  our  own. 

The  Governor  of  Shensi  when  I  visited  it  was 
Li  Shao  Fen.  By  all  of  seven  million  inhabitants 
of  the  province  he  was  much  more  often  referred  to 
and  was  far  more  greatly  feared  than  was  the  Em- 


SIAN    AND    THE    SIAMESE 

peror  in  Pekin.  If  a  new  arrival  in  Sian  had  never 
heard  of  Kwang  Su  or  the  Empress  Dowager  he 
would  have  believed  that  the  China  in  which  he 
lived  was  a  kingdom  of  which  the  Governor  of 
Shensi  was  the  supreme  power.  By  the  people  of 
Shensi  an  audience  with  a  mandarin  of  any  kind  is 
regarded  as  a  very  serious  matter,  and  a  conversa- 
tion with  the  Governor  is  almost  the  event  of  a 
lifetime.  Yet  when  my  host,  Mr.  Duncan,  sent 
word  to  the  Governor  that  I  wished  to  talk  over 
the  famine-situation  with  him,  a  courier  almost  im- 
mediately brought  back  a  note  replying  in  the 
affirmative  and  appointing  an  audience  for  the  fol- 
lowing afternoon. 

His  Excellency  Li's  residence  was  called  the 
palace.  It  was  long  and  low  and  was  not  far  from 
the  yamen  or  council-chamber  in  the  centre  of  the 
city.  As  Mr.  Duncan  and  myself  alighted  from  our 
cart  at  the  gate  at  the  appointed  time,  we  were  met 
by  a  mandarin's  servant  who  took  our  cards  and  led 
us  through  a  succession  of  court-yards  to  within  a 
hundred  feet  of  the  big  front-doors  of  the  palace. 
Here  he  suddenly  left  us  and  disappeared  through 
a  side-building.  For  some  minutes  we  stood  alone 
in  the  centre  of  the  court-yard,  while  the  sounds 
which  we  heard  from  behind  the  closed  doors  gave 
evidence  that  something  unusual  was  happening. 
Orders  were  given  in  a  loud  voice  and  there  was  a 
noise  as  of  furniture  being  moved  over  a  stone  floor. 
Several  soldiers  who  were  lounging  lazily  about  near 

189 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

the  door  suddenly  aroused  themselves  and  hurried 
into  the  building.  The  unseen  preparations  pro- 
duced an  impression  similar  to  a  wait  at  a  theatre 
before  the  beginning  of  the  play.  This  effect  was 
heightened  by  the  doors  themselves.  They  were  of 
great  size,  and  on  them  was  painted  a  design  of 
dragons  and  gods  and  flowers  that  would  have  done 
very  well  for  a  drop-curtain. 

Presently  from  somewhere  within  the  recesses 
of  the  building  a  discordant  blast  was  blown  on  a 
trumpet  and  the  doors  swung  back.  A  young  sec- 
retary of  the  Governor  stepped  out  and  clasped  his 
hands  in  front  of  him.  We  followed  him  to  the 
doorway  and  looked  down  a  long  hall.  In  the 
centre  of  it  stood  two  lines  of  soldiers  and  man- 
darin's servants  facing  each  other  and  forming  a 
lane  which  ended  in  a  divan  at  the  farther  end  of  the 
room.  The  soldiers  belonged  to  a  crack  Shensi  reg- 
iment that  constituted  the  Governor's  body-guard. 
They  were  armed  with  broadswords  and  their  uni- 
forms were  new  and  immaculate.  As  we  passed 
down  the  human  lane  each  man  in  succession 
dropped  on  one  knee  and  made  a  sort  of  curtsey. 
To  the  right  and  left  of  the  divan  of  the  Governor 
were  grouped  the  subordinate  mandarins  of  the 
city.  In  front  of  them  was  the  Governor,  an  iron- 
grey  man  with  a  strong  jaw  and  an  immobile,  emo- 
tionless face.  He  was  rather  tall  and  slender ;  his 
nose  was  aquiline  and  his  lips  thin  and  compressed, 
an    aristocrat    anywhere,    a    man    able    to   govern 

190 


SIAN   AND    THE    SIAMESE 

others  because  he  had  first  learned  to  govern  him- 
self, a  conservative  by  nature  and  education,  a  ruler 
of  the  Sons  of  Han.  Such  were  my  first  im. 
pressions  of  His  Excellency  Li  Shao  Fen.  Even 
more  than  with  most  mandarins  his  manner  was 
Anglo-Saxon.  In  talking  with  him  it  would  be 
impossible  for  an  American  to  have  that  sense  of 
strangeness  and  hesitation  as  to  what  to  do  next 
that  he  might  experience  in  an  interview  with 
an  official  of  Spain  or  Italy.  His  Excellency  in- 
sisted on  my  taking  the  left-hand  seat  beside  him 
on  the  divan,  an  honour  which  I  was  loath  to  accept 
in  the  presence  of  one  so  great  and  mighty.  Dur- 
ing the  interview  which  followed,  the  lines  of 
soldiers  and  servants  remained  immovable,  facing 
each  other  without  glancing  either  to  the  right  or 
the  left.  I  felt  that  they  must  have  been  inwardly 
cursing  me  for  keeping  them  standing  for  so  long 
a  time  and  I  sincerely  wished  that  Chinese  etiquette 
permitted  chairs  for  the  witnesses  of  an  official 
interview. 

"  My  people  in  Shensi,"  said  the  Governor,  "  are 
very  grateful  to  the  men  from  the  West  who  have 
sent  this  money  to  the  sufferers  from  famine.  You 
say  that  the  contributors  are  Americans.  I  was 
never  able  to  understand  the  difference  between 
Americans  and  Englishmen.  They  dress  alike,  they 
belong  to  the  same  race,  they  speak  the  same  lan- 
guage though  in  different  dialects.  Everyone  who 
belongs  to   our   race  we   consider  Chinese.     This 

191 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

Western  idea  of  two  men  of  the  same  blood  belong- 
ing to  different  nationalities,  I  do  not  understand." 

I  tried  to  throw  a  little  light  on  this  complex 
problem,  and  then  we  talked  about  means  and  meas- 
ure for  famine-relief.  I  found  that  there  was  no  de- 
tail of  the  subject  with  which  the  Governor  was  not 
entirely  familiar.  The  co-operation  which  the  sub- 
ordinate officials  had  given  Mr.  Duncan  in  his  dis- 
tribution of  the  American  money  was  all  in  com- 
pliance with  His  Excellency's  orders.  "  You  have 
travelled  a  long  distance,"  he  said. 

"  You  have  seen  something  of  my  province  and 
my  people,  who,  were  it  not  for  famine,  would  be 
very  happy.  What  do  you  think  ought  to  be  done 
to  prevent  the  recurrence  of  such  a  calamity  ? "  I 
replied  that  I  feared  it  would  be  an  act  of  great  pre- 
sumption for  me,  a  stranger,  to  offer  an  opinion  on 
the  subject  to  one  so  much  better  informed  than  I 
on  the  conditions  and  needs  of  his  people.  "  Oh 
no,"  he  said,  quickly,  "  I  would  not  have  asked  you 
if  I  did  not  want  your  reply.  Tell  me  what  you 
think  would  be  the  best  way  permanently  to  prevent 
famines." 

Thus  urged,  I  had  no  recourse  but  to  tell  the 
Governor  of  what  seemed  to  me  the  only  method 
by  which  Shensi  famines  could  be  made  impossible 
in  future.  "  If  a  railroad,"  I  said,  "connected  Sian 
with  any  of  the  food-markets  of  the  Empire,  like 
Hankow  or  Pekin,  a  widespread  famine  could  be 
averted,  because  by  this  means  enough  to  supply 

192 


SIAN   AND   THE   SIAMESE 

the  needs  of  your  people  could  always  be  brought 
from  the  more  productive  parts  of  the  country,  no 
matter  how  severe  and  long-continued  was  the 
drought  in  Shensi." 

"  In  some  ways  I  agree  with  you,"  he  said, 
slowly.  **  It  is  true  that  our  famines  could  be 
averted  by  railroads,  but  connected  with  them  are 
several  disadvantages.  They  bring  in  foreigners, 
whom  I  do  not  like,  and  they  throw  men  out  of 
work.  A  railroad  to  Sian  would  deprive  hundreds 
of  families  of  the  means  of  earning  a  livelihood.  I 
have  always  been  opposed  to  railroads,  but  since  I 
have  seen  the  horrors  of  this  famine,  I  have  about 
decided  that  they  are  a  necessity,  and  I  should  not 
oppose  one  whose  terminus  was  in  Sian." 

On  the  afternoon  following  our  audience  at  the 
palace,  I  returned  from  a  short  walk  to  find  our 
household  at  the  kung  kwan  in  a  state  of  unusual 
excitement.  At  a  row  of  basins  on  a  bench  in  the 
court-yard,  the  servants  were  washing  their  faces. 
A  tall  convert  was  sweeping  the  flag-stones.  This 
extraordinary  exhibition  of  cleanliness  alarmed  me, 
and  I  sent  hurriedly  for  Wang.  He  emerged  from 
his  room  at  the  side  of  the  yard,  with  his  hair 
hanging  in  loose  tresses  over  his  shoulders.  He 
was  followed  by  a  barber,  carrying  a  comb  and 
razor. 

"What  is  all  this  about?"  I  demanded,  stern- 
ly. **  What  are  you  all  washing  your  faces  for  ? 
Haven't  I  told  you  that  you  are  not  to  have  your 

193 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

queue  braided  until  evening,  after  your  day's  work 
is  done  ?  " 

"I  know  it.  I  know  it,  my  master,"  he  cried, 
"  but  the  Governor,  he  send  a  man  to  say  he  will 
call  on  you  in  an  hour.  It  is  a  big  business,  the 
Governor  is.  For  such  a  big  business,  man  must 
wash  the  face  and  braid  the  queue."  Then  I,  too, 
caught  the  infection  of  preparation  and  tried  to  rise 
equal  to  the  occasion.  The  brick  bed  in  my  room 
was  transformed  into  a  divan  by  throwing  over  it  a 
red  cloth.  My  cook  was  posed  in  a  corner  beside  a 
tea-pot.  I  put  on  the  one  unsullied  linen  shirt  that 
had  survived  the  long  journey  through  a  laundryless 
country. 

These  preparations  were  hardly  completed  when 
a  shouting  in  the  street  announced  the  arrival  of 
His  Excellency.  His  sedan  chair  was  accompanied 
by  about  twenty  soldiers  on  horse-back.  A  secre- 
tary brought  me  the  Governor's  card,  and  I  hurried 
to  the  gate  to  meet  him.  As  we  walked  together 
through  the  court-yard  I  apologised  for  the  un- 
worthiness  of  the  surroundings  of  his  reception,  but 
as  the  Governor  settled  down  on  our  improvised 
divan,  he  said  to  me,  through  Mr.  Duncan,  "  I  see 
that  you  have  learned  the  ways  of  the  Black  Haired 
people.  You  know  the  difference  between  the  right 
and  left-hand  seat." 

We  talked  about  my  journey  through  his  prov- 
ince. I  found  that  there  was  not  a  town  of  which 
he  did  not  know  the  population  nor  a  temple  whose 

194 


SIAN   AND   THE   SIANESE 

builder  he  could  not  tell  at  a  moment's  notice.  "  I 
have  been  told,"  he  remarked,  dryly,  "that  Christian- 
ity teaches  men  to  forgive  those  who  have  wronged 
them.  This  famine-money  would  seem  to  indicate 
that  such  was  the  case,  because  American  Chris- 
tians have  considerable  reason  to  dislike  the 
Chinese,  for  the  way  in  which  the  Boxers  perse- 
cuted the  missionaries,  but  until  now  I  have  never 
seen  any  indications  that  Christians  really  forgave 
their  enemies.  Of  course  you  cannot  understand 
why  my  people  dislike  the  missionaries.  No  man 
from  the  West  can  be  expected  to  do  that.  It  may 
be  that  we  shall  understand  each  other  better  now 
that  the  trouble  is  over.  Confucius  taught  us  that 
all  men  are  brothers,  and  if  my  people  realise  this 
fact,  they  will  not  annoy  the  missionaries," 

The  Governor  showed  considerable  interest  in 
my  map  of  China,  on  which  I  had  marked,  by  days, 
the  stages  of  journey  from  Pekin,  but  turning  quick- 
ly, he  asked  :  "  Now  where  is  the  United  States."  I 
took  down  a  wall-map  of  the  world,  and  tried  to 
explain  the  relative  position  of  the  Eastern  and 
Western  hemispheres.  As  Mr.  Duncan  translated 
my  words,  a  kindly  smile  overspread  the  Gover- 
nor's face.  "Your  barbarian  map  is  wrong,"  he 
said.  "  The  United  States  borders  upon  China ;  it 
must  do  so  because  China  is  the  Middle  Kingdom  ; 
it  is  in  the  centre  of  all  nations  and  the  world  is 
flat."  I  replied  that  in  our  country,  we  laboured 
under  the  impression  that  the  world  was  round,  but 

T95 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

that  a  knowledge  of  its  shape  was,  after  all,  not 
nearly  so  important  as  a  proper  understanding  of 
the  peoples  who  lived  on  it,  and  that,  as  my  learning 
was  greatly  inferior  to  the  Governor's,  I  should  dur- 
ing my  stay  in  Shensi  act  on  the  supposition  that 
the  world  was  flat.  In  this  fashion  we  talked  for 
nearly  an  hour.  The  conversation  was  quite  as 
simple  and  natural  as  it  would  have  been  had  my 
visitor  been  an  American  with  whom  I  had  be- 
come recently  acquainted.  In  the  governor's  man- 
ner there  was  no  trace  of  pompousness  or  Philistine 
complacency.  To  my  barbarian  ignorance  he  de- 
ferred with  far  more  consideration  than  many  esti- 
mable persons  in  the  United  States  would  have 
shown  toward  an  expression  of  Chinese  ideas  of 
geography.  The  governor  of  Shensi  did  not  use 
my  remarks  about  the  roundness  of  the  world  as  a 
text  for  a  lecture  on  the  hopeless  darkness  of  non- 
Confucian  civilisation.  Neither  did  he  hold  me  up 
as  a  sad  object-lesson  in  the  ignorance  of  the 
heathen.  He  was  willing  to  allow  me  to  hold  my 
own  opinions  on  non-essentials.  In  other  words  L. 
Shao  Fen  was  a  gentleman,  and  would  have  passed 
for  such  quite  as  much  in  New  York  or  London 
as  in  Sian. 

On  an  evening  a  few  days  before  the  depart, 
ure  from  Sian  of  Mr.  Duncan  and  myself,  a  little 
dinner  was  given  in  our  honour  by  several  young 
men  of  the  city.  None  of  our  hosts  were  Christian 
converts.     They   were    either    mandarins'  sons    or 

196 


SIAN   AND    THE   SIANESE 

men  who  had  recently  taken  degrees  at  the  public 
examinations.  The  restaurant  where  the  dinner 
was  held  had  been  the  Delmonico's  of  Sian  for 
several  centuries.  It  was  a  long,  narrow  building 
with  a  stairway  at  the  back  that  led  to  a  series  of 
private  dining-rooms,  one  of  which  we  occupied. 
While  waiting  for  dinner  we  sat  on  a  large  divan  at 
the  end  of  the  room,  where  our  hosts  smoked  their 
water-pipes  and  provided  us  with  cigarettes.  The 
dinner  consisted  of  many  courses  and  was  served 
on  a  large,  round  table.  With  the  exception  of  the 
chop-sticks  there  was  nothing  in  the  manners  or  de- 
portment of  our  hosts  that  differed  very  essentially 
from  Western  standards  of  good  form  in  dining.  In 
beginning  a  course  they  always  waited  until  Mr. 
Duncan  and  myself,  as  guests,  had  taken  the  initia- 
tive. They  did  not  talk  in  loud  tones,  and  they  never 
rested  their  elbows  on  the  table.  We  talked  about 
the  politics  of  the  day,  joked,  and  told  stories.  They 
all  had  a  very  poor  opinion  of  the  pretensions  of 
the  Pekin  Court  set,  with  whom  they  had  come  in 
contact  during  the  Imperial  exile  in  Sian.  Our 
hosts  said  that  the  Manchu  swells  "  wouldn't  do  "  at 
all.  They  had  a  penchant  for  gaily  coloured  tunics, 
and  they  wore  their  caps  on  one  side.  They  liked 
to  be  conspicuous  in  the  street.  They  were  really 
very  amusing,  but,  after  all,  you  couldn't  expect 
them  to  be  otherwise.  They  were  practically  for- 
eigners. Their  ancestors  came  into  China  only  four 
hundred  years  ago. 

197 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

The  talk  turned  on  the  Chinese  in  the  United 
States,  and  one  man  said :  "  Of  course,  the  emigrants 
from  China  to  America  are  of  the  most  ignorant 
and  worthless  kind.  The  mere  fact  that  a  China- 
man wants  to  leave  his  native  land  is  proof  that 
something  must  be  wrong  with  him.  No  gentle- 
man would  ever  think  of  living  in  a  foreign  country. 
It  is  not  at  all  strange  that  the  United  States 
Government  prohibits  such  Chinese  from  landing. 
The  only  wonder  to  me  is  that  they  are  tolerated  at 
all."  This  sentiment  I  heard  repeated  several  times 
in  Shensi.  The  men  of  that  province  who  have 
heard  of  the  Chinese  Exclusion  Act  bear  the  United 
States  little  ill-will  because  of  it.  The  Shensi  view 
of  Chinese  emigration  to  the  United  States  is  not 
shared  by  the  residents  of  Hong  Kong  or  Shanghai. 
In  these  places  there  is  a  loud  outcry  against  "Ameri- 
can discrimination,"  mingled  with  talk  of  retaliatory 
measures,  but  the  men  of  the  old  land  believe  that 
China  is  quite  as  good  a  place  for  their  race  to-day 
as  it  has  been  at  any  time  during  the  last  five  thou- 
sand years ;  they  have  a  hearty  contempt  for  an 
emigrant. 

As  the  dinner-party  broke  up  amid  "good- 
nights"  and  "good-byes,"  and  we  rode  homeward 
through  the  darkened  streets,  the  thought  upper- 
most in  my  mind  was  that  queues  and  a  yellow  skin 
and  chop-sticks  are,  after  all,  only  a  very  incomplete 
disguise  that  thinly  hides  "  one  touch  of  nature." 


ig8 


CHAPTER    XIV 

WHEN    KWANG   SU    WAS    AN    EXILE 

ALTHOUGH  in  China  women  have  always 
been  regarded  as  inferiors  and  their  position 
as  defined  by  law  has  never  been  much  better  than 
that  of  slaves,  they  have  always  played  a  prominent 
part  in  Chinese  history,  and  several  times  a  woman 
has  been  as  much  the  real  ruler  of  the  empire  as  is 
the  Empress  Dowager  to-day.  As  far  back  as  1 8 1 8 
B.C.  Mei  Hi,  the  beautiful  queen  of  the  Emperor 
Kwei,  caused  the  downfall  of  the  Hia  dynasty  by  a 
revolution  that  resulted  from  her  extravagance  and 
cruelty.  The  women  who  have  succeeded  Mei  Hi 
in  power  have  nearly  all  rivalled  her  in  wickedness, 
although  there  have  been  exceptions  like  Chang 
Sun,  the  queen  of  the  great  Emperor  Tai  Tsung. 
When  she  was  dying  in  Sian,  Chang  Sun  said  to  her 
husband  :  "  Put  no  jewels  in  my  coffin.  Let  my 
head  rest  on  a  wooden  tile  and  fasten  my  hair  with 
wooden  pins.  Listen  to  no  unworthy  men  and 
build  no  costly  palaces.  If  you  promise  me  these 
things  I  shall  die  happy."  But  the  most  remarkable 
woman  in  Chinese  history  was  the  Empress  Dowager 
Wu  How.  In  the  days  of  the  T'ang  dynasty  Wu 
How  was  the  queen  of  Kau  Tsung.     On  the  death 

199 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

of  the  Emperor  in  a.d.  684,  she  was  declared  re- 
gent during  the  minority  of  her  step-son,  Chung 
Tsung.  Wu  How  ruled  with  an  iron  hand.  She 
was  cruel  and  fanatical.  She  tortured  and  killed 
her  enemies  by  scores.  She  persecuted  the  Nes- 
torian  Christians.  She  scandalised  Sian  by  her  va- 
garies and  wild  amours,  but  under  her  the  Empire 
prospered.  Her  armies  put  down  rebellions  and 
drove  back  the  barbarians.  She  was  feared  but  be- 
loved, and  to  this  day  she  is  usually  referred  to  by 
the  title  she  assumed  for  herself,  "The  Great  and 
Sacred  Empress,  equal  of  Heaven." 

Tsz'  Hi,  the  present  Empress  Dowager,  is  the 
first  woman  who  has  occupied  the  dragon-throne 
since  Wu  How.  It  is  a  misapplication  of  terms  to 
say  that  Chinese  history  repeats  itself  in  the  sense 
that  it  contains  isolated  parallels  such  as  are  found 
in  the  histories  of  other  nations.  The  history  of 
China  is  one  long  continuous  repetition.  Its  cur- 
rent never  changes  its  course  or  increases  its  speed. 
Time  makes  no  difference  in  customs,  or  systems,  or 
points  of  view.  The  continuous  existence  of  the 
same  conditions  in  China  makes  possible  only  a 
recurrence  of  similar  events.  The  range  of  action 
is  limited.  As  a  matter  of  course,  the  same  things 
happen  over  and  over  again,  with  changes  only  in 
the  dates  and  in  names  of  the  actors.  Like  Wu 
How,  Tsz'  Hi  was  the  relict  of  one  Emperor  and 
the  guardian  of  another.  Like  Wu  How,  Tsz'  Hi 
was  a  woman,  in  a  country  where  women  have  al- 


WHEN    KWANG   SU    WAS   AN    EXILE 

ways  been  treated  with  contempt.  Like  her  prede- 
cessor of  twelve  centuries  ago,  the  reigning  Em- 
press Dowager  realised  that  if  she  were  to  rule  at  all 
she  must  be  more  forceful,  more  aggressive,  more 
cruel  than  any  man.  In  order  to  further  their  own 
selfish  schemes  Tsz'  Hi's  enemies  used  against  her 
the  same  arguments  as  had  the  men  who  sought  the 
downfall  of  Wu  How.  They  said  she  was  only  a 
poor,  weak  woman,  unfit  to  govern.  She  showed 
her  subjects  that  her  enemies  were  mistaken  by 
cutting  off  their  heads,  exterminating  their  families, 
and  seizing  their  property. 

Being  women  of  China,  neither  Wu  How  nor 
Tsz'  Hi  had  any  education  beyond  the  results  of 
their  own  experience.  They  both  were  exception- 
ally fanatical  and  superstitious.  Wu  How  helped 
to  drive  out  the  Nestorians  and  Tsz'  Hi  has  always 
hated  Christians.  But  these  very  faults  have  helped 
to  make  the  reigning  Empress  Dowager  beloved  by 
the  great  mass  of  the  people  just  as  was  W^u  How. 
Both  have  always  been  regarded  as  the  defenders  of 
the  ancient  faiths  and  systems,  and  both  have  re- 
ceived the  homage  that  a  strong  nature  has  always 
commanded  since  the  world  began.  The  attitude  of 
the  barbarians  during  the  present  regency  of  Tsz' 
Hi  has  been  exactly  the  same  as  it  was  in  Wu  How's 
time.  On  the  outside  of  a  nation  as  exclusive  as 
China  there  must  always  be  some  peoples  who  chafe 
at  not  being  allowed  to  enter  it.  During  a  momen- 
tary triumph  of  her  barbarian  enemies,  the  Empress 


THROUGH    HIDDEN   SHENSI 

Dowager  naturally  retired,  with  her  court  and  the 
Emperor  who  was  her  ward,  to  the  city  that  Wu 
How's  similar  reign  had  helped  to  make  glorious, 
and  the  second  greatest  woman  in  Chinese  history 
made  Sian  the  capital  of  the  Empire. 

Although  her  departure  from  Pekin  was  en- 
forced, it  has  never  seemed  to  me  exactly  correct  to 
call  it  a  flight.  No  one  had  molested  the  Empress 
Dowager  during  the  thirty-six  hours  following  the  fall 
of  the  capital,  and  whatever  may  have  been  the  inten- 
tions of  the  allies,  no  one  had  yet  attempted  to  make 
her  a  prisoner.  In  the  light  of  the  laissez-faire  policy 
pursued  by  the  foreign  plenipotentiaries  toward  all 
Chinese  offenders  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  Empress 
Dowager  would  ever  have  been  treated  with  great 
severity.  During  the  foreign  occupation  of  Pekin, 
Tsz'  Hi  and  Kwang  Su  might  have  been  detained 
on  parole  and  subsequently  released  when  the  trouble 
was  over.  Certain  it  is  that  there  was  nothing  in 
the  action  of  the  allies  to  give  the  Empress  Dowager 
or  her  step-son  any  cause  for  immediate  alarm,  when 
on  the  morning  of  a  day  in  August,  1900,  they 
climbed  into  their  carts  and  were  driven  quietly  out 
of  the  north  gate  of  Pekin.  No  attempt  was  made 
at  pursuit,  and  after  a  short  rest  near  Kalgan,  in 
northern  Chili,  the  journey  to  Sian  was  determined 
upon  and  a  cloak  of  systematic  deception  w^as  thrown 
over  the  Imperial  exile  which  has  beer  continued 
ever  since.  Orders  were  sent  to  the  mandarins  at 
every  town  along  the  route  to  prepare  for  the  com- 

202 


WHEN    KWANG   SU   WAS   AN    EXILE 

ing  of  the  Emperor  of  China,  who  had  decided  to 
make  a  progress  through  his  dominions.  It  was 
officially  announced  that  the  presence  of  so  many 
foreigners  in  Pekin  was  distasteful  to  the  Emperor, 
and  that,  loyal  to  the  traditions  of  his  country,  he  had 
decided  to  remove  his  capital  to  Sian. 

From  the  time  of  Yau  and  Shun  it  has  been 
the  practice  of  Emperors  of  China  occasionally  to 
travel  leisurely  through  their  dominions,  studying 
the  conditions  of  their  people  and  worshipping  at 
the  famous  temples.  That  Kwang  Su  should  follow 
the  example  of  his  predecessors  was  very  much  to 
his  credit  and  was  a  cause  of  great  rejoicing  to  his 
subjects.  In  their  eyes,  too,  his  departure  from  a 
capital  that  barbarians  had  profaned  was  an  act  of 
especial  virtue,  worthy  of  an  Emperor  of  China. 
In  this  light  the  people  of  Shansi  and  Shensi  re- 
garded the  journey  of  the  Empress  Dowager  and 
the  Emperor  through  the  two  provinces,  and  this 
view  of  what  the  West  calls  "  the  exile  "  is  held  to- 
day all  over  the  interior  of  China.  Of  the  scores 
of  men  who  have  given  me  their  opinions  on  the 
subject,  not  one  has  ever  intimated  a  belief  that  the 
Empress  Dowager  was  compelled  to  leave  Pekin, 
or  that  the  foreign  allies  were  in  any  way  the  vic- 
tors. In  discussions  of  the  trouble  with  the  barba- 
rians it  was  always  taken  for  granted  that  they  were 
unsuccessful  in  any  designs  they  might  have  enter- 
tained against  China,  because  China  was  invincible, 
and  that  all  enemies  must  eventually  retire,  leaving 

203 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

things  as  they  found  them  ;  and  as  a  matter  of  fact 
this  is  just  about  what  happened  before  the  exiled 
court  consented  to  return  to  Pekin. 

Every  mandarin  along  the  route  of  nearly  eight 
hundred  miles  knew  that  if  the  Empress  Dowager 
found  that  insufficient  provision  had  been  made  for 
her  in  his  district,  his  head  would  likely  be  the  for- 
feit of  her  displeasure,  and  all  the  mandarin's  sub- 
jects realised  equally  clearly  that  any  failure  on  their 
part  to  comply  with  official  orders  for  a  public  re- 
ception would  be  punishable  with  death.  The 
result  was  that  the  highroads  of  Shansi  and  Shensi 
showed  signs  of  activity  such  as  they  have  not 
known  since  the  days  of  Genghis  Khan.  Villages 
were  swept  and  dusted  ;  dilapidated  kung  kwans 
were  remodelled  and  redecorated  ;  old  idols  in  the 
temples  were  given  fresh  coats  of  paint  and  gilding; 
and  thousands  of  men  repaired  roads  and  bridges. 
At  the  resting-place  near  Kalgan  assembled  the 
members  of  the  court  who  were  to  accompany  the 
Emperor  into  exile.  Along  with  them  came  a  vast 
train  of  attendants  and  three  or  four  regiments  of 
soldiers.  The  extensive  luggage  of  this  small  army 
was  carried  in  carts  which  preceded  the  yellow  chairs 
of  the  Emperor  and  Empress  by  several  miles. 

According  to  Chinese  ideas  of  propriety  rapid 
journeys  are  extremely  bad  form.  The  greater  the 
dignity  and  position  of  the  traveller  the  slower  must 
be  his  progress.  The  Empress  Dowager  and  the 
Emperor  stayed  for  at  least  tw^enty-four  hours  in 

204 


WHEN    KWANG   SU    WAS   AN    EXILE 

every  town  of  importance  through  which  they 
passed  ;  they  worshipped  at  all  the  principal  temples 
and  they  received  the  petitions  and  the  addresses 
of  hundreds  of  mandarins.  They  never  hurried  and 
they  always  acted  as  though  the  foreign  allies  in 
Pekin  and  anything  they  might  do  was  too  unim- 
portant to  be  worthy  of  their  consideration.  They 
succeeded  in  creating  the  impression  everywhere 
that  it  was  only  their  good  pleasure  to  travel  to 
Sian,  and  the  simple  farmers  to-day  speak  of  the 
Imperial  exiles  as  though  they  had  conferred  a  last- 
ing honour  on  the  old  land  by  travelling  over  it. 

From  Kalgan  the  Imperial  party  journeyed 
southwest  to  Tai  Yuan  in  Shansi.  The  route  thence 
to  Sian  was  the  one  I  followed  fifteen  months  later. 
The  Imperial  progress  was  still  the  all-absorbing 
topic  of  conversation,  and,  to  judge  from  appear- 
ances, will  continue  to  be  so  for  a  generation.  In 
a  place  as  dull  and  workaday  as  a  Shansi  town  the 
visit  of  the  Son  of  Heaven  was  a  thing  never  to  be 
forgotten.  More  than  one  mandarin  has  told  me 
that  he  regarded  the  welcome  that  he  was  able  to 
give  to  the  Empress  Dowager  as  the  greatest  event 
of  his  life.  In  the  larger  towns  the  Imperial  resi- 
dence was  the  district  yamen,  but  in  the  smaller 
places,  where  the  mandarin  was  not  rich  enough  to 
afford  a  yamen,  the  kung  kwan  became  the  tem- 
porary home  of  the  sovereigns  of  China.  Over  the 
entrances  of  at  least  ten  of  these  official  inns  I  found 
signs  inscribed  with  the  words  "  A  thousand  years," 

205 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

a  Chinese  form  of  greeting  to  the  Emperor,  that  is 
about  equivalent  to  the  French  "  Vive."  I  became 
accustomed  to  being  gravely  reminded  by  the  ban- 
chaiti  that  the  pile  of  bricks  on  which  I  slept  was 
the  same  bed  on  which  the  "  Son  of  Heaven  "  had 
passed  the  night.  For  the  next  ten  years  Shensi 
banchaitis  will  probably  continue  to  say  to  travellers, 
"My  Emperor  liked  this  tea,"  or  the  great  Empress 
Mother  said,  "  How  beautiful  is  this  wall-paper." 
There  was  scarcely  a  town  along  the  entire  line  of 
the  journey  that  had  not  a  story  of  some  incident  of 
the  Imperial  progress.  Although  the  importance  of 
these  incidents  was  doubtless  unduly  exaggerated  in 
the  minds  of  the  people  of  the  dull  towns  where 
they  occurred,  they  showed  that  the  Empress  Dow- 
ager was  always  the  dominating  personality.  Com- 
pared with  the  power  that  she  never  hesitated  to 
exercise  and  the  fear  she  everywhere  inspired,  the  au- 
thority of  the  Emperor  was  only  that  of  a  weak  child. 
From  the  time  of  her  departure  from  Pekin  the 
Empress  Dowager  seemed  to  have  made  up  her  mind 
that  the  Boxer  movement  was  a  sad  failure,  for 
which  she  had  feelings  only  of  disgust  and  detesta- 
tion. To  the  great  surprise  of  the  mandarins,  all 
attempts  to  revive  anti-foreign  fanaticism  along  the 
line  of  the  journey  were  crushed  quickly  and  merci- 
lessly. As  Tsz'  Hi  was  entering  Kie  hiu,  a  man  in 
Boxer  regalia  ran  into  the  road,  and  kneeling  be- 
side her  chair,  began  a  eulogistic  address  on  her 
efforts  to  exterminate  the  "foreign  devils."     The 

206 


WHEN    KWANG   SU    WAS   AN    EXILE 

Empress  Dowager,  so  an  eye-witness  told  me, 
merely  motioned  to  one  of  her  body-guard,  who 
quietly  walked  behind  the  Boxer,  and  with  one 
stroke  of  his  sword  cut  off  his  oration  and  his  head 
at  the  same  time.  The  Empress  Dowager  sent  for 
the  mandarin  of  Kie  hiu,  and,  after  publicly  upbraid- 
ing him  for  allowing  such  a  demonstration  to  take 
place,  she  degraded  him  from  office.  As  it  hap- 
pened, the  mandarin  had  done  all  he  could  to  sup- 
press the  Boxers  in  his  district,  and  he  had  saved 
the  life  of  a  missionary.  The  Boxer  had  been  al- 
lowed to  make  his  address  only  because  the  man- 
darin supposed  that  it  would  please  the  Empress 
Dowager.  But  he  was  degraded,  nevertheless,  and 
when  I  visited  Kie  hiu  he  was  still  out  of  office. 

Word  was  brought  to  the  Empress  Dowager 
that  a  member  of  the  Imperial  household,  a  Manchu 
of  high  rank,  was  making  a  handsome  "  squeeze  " 
out  of  a  contract  for  the  carts  that  carried  the  lug- 
gage of  the  court.  She  at  once  announced  that  as 
official  corruption  was  the  cause  of  all  of  the  troubles 
of  China,  an  example  must  be  made  of  the  dishonest 
official ;  a  few  minutes  later  his  head  was  rolling  in 
the  dust  of  the  Shansi  road.  Nearly  all  the  stories 
that  were  told  to  me  to  illustrate  the  true  greatness 
of  the  Empress  Dowager  concluded  with  the  words 
"and  his  head  was  cut  off."  Accounts  of  the  impe- 
rial progress  through  Shansi  and  Shensi,  as  related 
by  mandarins  and  banchaitis,  strongly  resemble  the 
experiences  of   "  Alice  "  with  the  "  Wonderland  " 

207 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

queen.  But  this  wholesale  decapitation  did  not 
tend  to  make  the  Empress  Dowager  less  popular 
with  her  subjects. 

Some  of  the  accounts  of  recent  happenings  in 
China  convey  the  impression  that  this  wonderful 
old  woman  maintains  her  position  and  prestige  only 
by  the  fear  that  she  has  inspired  in  her  people,  who 
hate  her,  and  who  would  rejoice  to  see  her  deposed 
from  power  forever.  How  far  this  feeling  may  pre- 
vail in  the  treaty-ports  and  places  where  foreign 
influence  has  made  itself  felt,  I  am  unable  to  judge, 
but  certain  it  is  that  throughout  the  interior  of  the 
Empire,  Tsz'  Hi,  reigning  regent  of  China,  was  never 
more  beloved  than  she  is  to-day.  The  Chinese  do 
not  have  that  blind  worship  of  the  person  of  the 
sovereign  as  such,  which  characterises  a  subservient 
Russian  peasant.  The  existing  sentiment  of  ex- 
treme loyalty  to  the  Empress  Dowager  is  due  to 
a  great  admiration  and  respect  for  her  character  and 
an  unbounded  confidence  in  her  ability.  Some  of 
the  younger  mandarins  admit  that  she  has  made 
mistakes,  but  these  are  due  to  her  intense  zeal  for 
the  welfare  of  her  subjects.  By  the  common  people 
she  is  almost  worshipped.  In  their  eyes  her  faults 
and  cruelties  are  virtues.  They  believe  that  her 
only  motive  in  cutting  off  heads  and  torturing  offi- 
cials who  have  dared  to  oppose  her  is  to  maintain 
"  Peace."  Wherever  the  Empress  Dowager  goes 
there  is  "  Peace."  For  this  reason  she  is  an  ideal 
ruler.     "  May  she  live  a  thousand  years." 

208 


WHEN    KWANG   SU   WAS   AN    EXILE 

In  a  park  in  the  northern  part  of  Sian  there 
stands  a  long,  low,  brick  building.  It  is  very  old,  and 
was  for  several  centuries  the  official  residence  of  the 
viceroys  of  the  northwest  provinces.  Since  the  ac- 
quisition of  Eastern  Turkestan  by  the  Chinese  Em- 
pire, the  residence  of  the  viceroy  has  been  removed 
to  Lanchou,  in  Kansuh.  For  a  time,  the  old  house 
in  the  park  was  occupied  by  successive  governors  of 
Shensi,  but  about  twenty  years  ago  somebody  an- 
nounced that  it  was  haunted.  Just  who  the  spirits 
were  who  showed  a  preference  for  the  dreary  old 
pile,  or  how  they  manifested  themselves  I  was  never 
able  to  discover.  But  it  was  haunted,  and  it  was 
therefore  abandoned  to  rats  and  bats  for  nearly  two 
decades.  This  was  its  condition  when  Tuan  Fang, 
governor  of  Shensi,  was  notified  that  Sian  was  to  be 
the  capital  of  China,  and  that  the  Empress  Dowager 
and  her  step-son  must  find  a  palace  prepared  for 
their  reception  on  their  arrival.  However  disagree- 
able Chinese  spirits  may  be  to  ordinary  persons, 
they  invariably  flee  from  the  presence  of  the  Son  of 
Heaven.  They  would  never  trouble  Kwang  Su 
and  his  step-mother.  The  old  viceroy's  yamen  was 
larger  than  any  other  of  Sian's  pubHc  buildings.  It 
was  selected  as  the  palace.  Three  hundred  carpen- 
ters and  decorators  were  put  at  work  to  renovate 
and  redecorate  it.  A  number  of  buildings  on  adja- 
cent lots  were  appropriated  as  houses  for  the  mem- 
bers of  the  court.  These,  too,  were  remodelled 
and  the  grounds  around  them  were  ornamented  by 

209 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

the  building  of  summer-houses  and  arbours.  The 
whole  area,  comprising  about  fifteen  acres,  was  then 
inclosed  with  a  high  brick-wall,  in  evident  imitation 
of  the  forbidden  city  of  Pekin. 

In  Chinese  eyes  any  palace  where  the  Emperor 
has  lived  is  sacred  and  must  remain  for  several 
months  in  exactly  the  same  condition  as  he  left  it. 
Immediately  on  the  departure  of  the  court  for 
Pekin  the  gates  in  the  wall  around  the  Sian  palace 
were  closed  and  a  guard  of  soldiers  was  stationed  in 
front  of  them.  A  mandarin  and  a  corps  of  soldiers 
were  placed  in  charge  of  the  premises,  to  see  that 
none  of  the  furniture  was  moved,  and  that  the 
buildings  were  dusted  and  cleaned  every  morning 
as  carefully  as  though  Tsz'  Hi  and  Kwang  Su  still 
occupied  them.  Everyone  was  forbidden  by  the 
Governor  under  severe  penalty  from  attempting  to 
enter  the  palace-grounds  without  the  express  permis- 
sion of  the  mandarin  in  charge,  and  this  could  be 
obtained  only  on  rare  occasions  by  officials  of  high 
rank.  Even  my  host,  Mr.  Duncan,  told  me  that 
the  palace  was  the  one  place  in  Sian  which  he  did 
not  consider  it  wise  or  safe  for  a  foreigner  to  at- 
tempt to  visit. 

After  I  had  been  about  a  week  in  Sian,  Wang 
and  I  started  out  one  afternoon  from  the  kung 
kwan  for  a  walk  before  dinner.  We  wandered 
around  the  public  square  for  a  while,  and  then 
struck  off  toward  the  north  gate.  We  had  no  par- 
ticular objective  point  in  view  and  were  strolling 

2IO 


WHEN    KWANG   SU   WAS   AN    EXILE 

along  very  leisurely  when  we  discovered  that  the 
street  which  we  were  following  terminated  at  the 
gate  of  the  palace.  I  had  several  times  passed  the 
gate  before,  although  I  had  never  approached  it  by 
this  particular  street,  I  had  abandoned  the  idea  of 
visiting  the  palace,  but  as  the  gate  confronted  us  on 
that  particular  afternoon,  a  sudden  and  overpower- 
ing desire  to  see  what  was  behind  it  came  over  me. 

Guarding  the  gate  were  two  huge  stone  lions. 
They  probably  were  sitting  there  when  Columbus 
first  sailed  for  America,  but  their  youth  recently 
had  been  renewed  by  bright,  green  paint  and  the 
tongues  which  hung  out  of  their  mouths  had  been 
newly  gilded.  Their  colour  had  destroyed  any  trace 
of  fierceness  they  ever  possessed.  They  looked  as 
though  they  might  be  British  lions  who  had 
adopted  Irish  colours,  and  were  in  consequence 
unusually  cheerful.  With  their  mouths  wide  open, 
the  lions  seemed  to  be  laughing  at  Wang  and 
me,  as  they  looked  down  at  us  from  their  ped- 
estals. "Try  it,"  they  seemed  to  be  saying,  "It's 
easy,"  and  I  determined  to  act  on  the  suggestion. 

"  Wang,"  I  said,  "  it's  up  to  us.  We  are  going 
into  the  palace." 

"May  be  we  get  the  heads  cut  off,"  he  said; 
"but  if  my  master  say  so,  for  me  it  is  must  can  do." 

We  walked  over  to  a  soldier  standing  in  front 
of  a  sentry-box.  I  gave  him  my  card  and  asked 
him  to  call  the  mandarin,  as  I  wished  to  speak  with 
him.     The  soldier  demurred  and  refused  to  receive 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

my  card.  Wang  turned  on  him  and  began  a  ha- 
rangue in  Chinese.  I  could  only  guess  its  nature 
by  the  way  in  which  the  soldier  receiv^ed  it.  Every 
time  he  tried  to  get  a  word  in  edgeways,  Wang  in- 
creased the  speed  of  his  speech.  Without  raising 
his  voice  he  poured  out  a  torrent  of  words  at  the 
rate  of  about  a  thousand  a  minute.  By  and  by  the 
soldier  seemed  to  droop  under  the  fire.  He  hung 
his  head  and  looked  at  the  ground  humiliated. 
Without  letting  his  voice  drop,  Wang  came  to  a 
sudden  stop.  The  soldier  took  the  card  and  ambled 
off  through  the  gateway.  "He  can  do  now,"  Wang 
explained,  "  I  speak  with  him  in  scolding." 

With  my  previous  experience  of  mandarins,  I 
had  pictured  the  man  in  charge  of  the  vacant  palace 
as  being  well  advanced  in  years  and  exceptionally 
grave  and  sedate.  I  was  quite  unprepared  for  such 
a  youthful  mandarin  as  the  one  who  returned  with 
the  soldier  to  the  gate.  He  was  not  more  than 
twenty-five  years  old.  He  wore  a  purple-silk  tunic 
and  a  grey  kilt.  The  button  on  his  cap  indicated 
his  rank  unmistakably.  The  fact  that  he  had 
attained  to  such  a  position  so  early  in  life  seemed 
to  indicate  that  he  was  possessed  of  more  than 
ordinary  ability.  I  told  him  that  I  had  a  great 
desire  to  get  some  idea  of  a  place  which  had  been 
the  residence  of  a  monarch  who  ruled  over  more 
men  than  any  other  man  on  earth;  and  I  requested 
permission  to  walk  through  the  palace-grounds. 
"The  Son  of  Heaven  lived  here,"  he  said,  "and  no 


WHEN    KWANG   SU    WAS   AN    EXILE 

one  can  enter  the  place  where  he  has  been.  But 
come  into  my  office,"  he  added,  "  I  want  to  talk  to 
you."  He  led  the  way  to  a  little  building  just 
inside  the  gate.  "  I,  too,  am  a  foreigner,"  said  the 
young  mandarin  as  a  servant  brought  us  some  tea. 
"  My  home  is  in  Sichuan.  I  have  been  only  a  year 
in  Shensi.  Sichuan  is  a  beautiful  land,  where  there 
are  waterfalls  and  high  mountains  and  bamboo 
forests."  As  he  talked  of  home  the  stiffness  and 
official  reserve  vanished.  I  forgot  that'  he  was  a 
Chinaman  and  a  mandarin,  and  he  acted  as  though 
he  had  forgotten  that  I  was  a  foreigner.  We  were 
both  men  talking  about  home. 

"  Whenever  I  think  of  my  native  land,"  said 
the  mandarin  of  the  palace,  "  my  thoughts  take  the 
form  of  music.  One  cannot  speak  in  words  of  such 
a  thing  as  home."  From  a  drawer  in  a  cabinet  in 
the  corner  of  the  room,  he  took  out  a  zither  and 
laid  it  on  the  table  in  front  of  him.  **  I  am  on  a 
Sichuan  mountain,"  he  said.  "The  sun  is  shining 
down  on  me  through  the  bamboo  leaves.  I  can 
hear  the  sound  of  a  waterfall,  and  white  rabbits  are 
playing  near  me.  It  is  one  of  the  hours  when  one 
cannot  help  being  happy."  His  fingers  ran  over  the 
zither-strings  ;  his  dark  Sichuanese  face  lighted  ;  his 
eyes  sparkled.  For  the  moment  he  seemed  obliv- 
ious of  us  and  everything  about  him.  His  playing, 
soft  at  first,  grew  louder  and  faster  and  lingered  on 
the  high  notes  ;  then  died  away  in  a  dreamy  monot- 
ony around  the  middle  of  the  scale.     "  Were  you 

213 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

improvising?"  I  asked,  as  he  finished,  "Certainly," 
he  replied,  as  though  surprised  at  my  question. 
"  Music  is  the  words  of  a  man's  soul.  No  two  men 
have  the  same  soul,  and  one  man  cannot  read  the 
soul  of  another.  If  I  were  to  play  notes  that  some- 
one else  had  written,  it  would  not  be  my  soul  that 
speaks  ;  it  would  not  be  music.  Barbarian  music 
is  not  the  speech  of  the  soul.  It  is  noise.  I  have 
heard  Christians  singing  in  the  mission  chapels." 

"  There  is  considerable  truth  in  what  you  say  of 
the  songs  Chinese  Christians  sing,"  I  replied;  "but 
you  are  entirely  wrong  in  supposing  that  all  of  our 
music  is  without  meaning.  Between  the  Black- 
Haired  People  and  us  barbarians  there  isn't  so  much 
difference  as  you  suppose.  In  the  theory  of  music, 
as  with  everything  else,  the  difference  lies  chiefly  in 
the  fact  that  what  is  a  very  old  story  with  you  is  a 
new  one  with  us.  During  the  last  one  hundred 
years  a  new  kind  of  music  has  become  popular  in 
barbarian  countries.  Every  note  means  something. 
Its  sound  is  nothing  ;  its  motive  everything.  Men 
who  understand  it  and  a  lot  more  who  don't  say 
that  it  is  the  language  of  their  souls.  Being  an  old- 
fashioned  barbarian,  I  personally  prefer  music  that 
is  noise,  but  I  realise  perfectly  that  a  man  can't  tell 
in  words  about  the  land  where  he  was  born,  and  we 
barbarians  sing  about  our  homes,  which  we  love 
quite  as  dearly  as  you  do  Sichuan." 

"Then  the  zither  has  at  least  made  you  under- 
stand the  love  I  have  for  my  country,  and  you  have 

214 


WHEN    KWANG   SU   WAS   AN    EXILE 

a  respect  for  this  Empire  ?  "  he  asked.  I  answered 
in  the  affirmative,  wondering  what  he  was  going  to 
do  next.  **  I  have  played  to  you,"  he  said,  springing 
up  from  the  table,  "  in  order  that  the  music  might 
make  you  feel  the  love  we  have  for  our  country,  so 
that  you  would  respect  it.  If  you  do  that  you  will 
also  respect  the  place  where  my  Emperor  has  lived. 
The  responsibility  of  admitting  anyone  to  these 
grounds  rests  with  me.  I  usually  do  not  allow  my 
countrymen  to  enter,  for  even  they  cannot  realise 
what  a  solemn  thing  it  is  to  walk  through  the 
rooms  from  which  my  country  has  been  ruled. 
You  could  not  be  expected  to  respect  the  palace 
because  you  are  a  barbarian,  and  so  I  refused  when 
you  asked  me  for  permission  to  walk  through  the 
grounds.  But  I  have  changed  my  mind.  You  un- 
derstand what  the  zither  said.  You  are  my  friend. 
I  will  myself  show  you  through  the  palace."  I  tried 
to  thank  him.  But  the  delicacy  of  the  climax  had 
overwhelmed  me.  I  was  the  one  now  who  was  at 
a  loss  for  words — not  merely  Chinese  words,  but 
words  of  any  kind.  I  so  far  forgot  the  rules  of 
mandarin  decorum  as  to  shake  his  hand.  Turning 
to  Wang,  whose  powers  of  interpreting  were  being 
strained  to  the  uttermost,  I  said  :  "  Tell  him  that 
he  is  right.     I  am  a  barbarian." 

It  was  in  this  way  that  I  happened  to  be  the 
first  white  man  to  enter  the  palace  of  the  exile  in 
Sian.  The  young  mandarin  and  myself  grew  to  be 
very  good  friends.     He  called  on  me  at  the  kung 

215 


THROUGH    HIDDEN   SHENSI 

kwan,  and  I  visited  him  several  times  in  his  office 
by  the  gate.  Not  only  did  he  keep  his  promise  to 
show  me  through  the  palace,  but  he  told  me  much 
of  the  gossip  of  the  hidden  court  that  centred 
about  the  Empress  Dowager.  Probably  several  of 
the  narratives  were  exaggerations  of  fact.  Possibly 
a  few  were  untrue,  though  never  intentionally  so. 
Several  times  my  guide  and  friend  expressed  sur- 
prise that  I,  as  a  barbarian,  could  at  all  comprehend 
the  meaning  of  his  stories  of  court  procedure  and 
intrigue. 

The  main  building  of  the  palace  was  painted 
red  and  was  covered  with  a  roof  of  brown  tile.  As 
in  most  Chinese  houses  of  the  better  class,  the  front 
door  was  directly  in  the  centre.  There  was  no  at- 
tempt at  vestibule  or  hallway,  but  upon  entering  one 
passed  directly  into  the  throne-room.  The  ceiling 
was  high  and  was  covered  with  bright  yellow  paper. 
On  the  floor  was  a  carpet  composed  of  small 
patches  of  red  cloth  sewn  together.  Opposite  the 
door  against  the  rear  wall  was  a  square  settee  of 
teak-wood.  Its  back  and  sides  were  quaintly  carved, 
and  over  it  hung  a  crimson  canopy.  On  this  settee 
the  Emperor  Kwang  Su  sat  cross-legged  on  the 
state  occasions  when  he  received  Manchu  princes  of 
the  blood  royal.  Even  in  its  vacancy  my  mandarin- 
guide  always  approached  the  former  throne  with  the 
greatest  reverence  and  made  an  involuntary  kow- 
tow to  the  mighty  presence  that  had  recently  occu- 
pied it.     AH  mandarins  and  the  ordinary  court  offi- 

216 


WHEN    KWANG   SU    WAS   AN    EXILE 

cials  were  received  in  the  left  wing  of  the  palace. 
This  was  a  long,  narrow  room  in  which  the  prin- 
cipal piece  of  furniture  was  a  bamboo  bench  covered 
with  a  yellow  silk  cushion.  On  this  the  Empress 
Dowager  and  Kwang  Su  sat  during  the  daily  au- 
diences. The  Empress  Dowager  invariably  received 
the  first  kow-tow  of  a  visiting  mandarin,  and  she  al- 
ways occupied  the  left-hand  seat.  The  only  other 
articles  of  furniture  beside  some  ebony  stools  and 
settees  were  two  large  French  clocks  which  had 
been  brought  from  Pekin,  and  that  had  never  made 
the  slightest  pretence  of  keeping  time,  but  this  de- 
fect did  not  lessen  their  value  in  the  eyes  of  the 
Emperor.  He  was  very  fond  of  them,  and  he  often 
fixed  his  gaze  on  them  while  the  mandarins  were 
presenting  their  petitions  to  his  stepmother. 

Directly  in  the  rear  of  the  palace  was  a  similar 
building  that  constituted  the  living  apartments  of 
the  Imperial  exiles.  It,  too,  was  flanked  with  large 
wings,  the  Empress  Dowager's  room  being  at  the 
left  of  the  entrance  in  the  centre.  In  the  original 
plan  for  remodelling  the  viceroy's  yamen  into  a  pal- 
ace, a  large  suite  of  rooms  in  the  right  wing  was  set 
aside  for  the  Empress  Dowager,  but  when,  on  her 
arrival,  she  discovered  the  provision  that  had  been 
made  for  her  she  flew  into  a  violent  rage  and  threat- 
ened to  cut  off  the  heads  of  all  the  architects  and 
builders  who  had  anything  to  do  with  renovating 
the  palace.  She  was  pacified  only  by  being  allowed 
to  make  her  own  selection  of  rooms.     This  she  did 

217 


THROUGH    HIDDEN   SHENSI 

by  appropriating  the  apartments  set  aside  for  Kwang 
Su  in  the  place  of  honour  in  the  left  wing.  He,  as 
usual,  yielded  and  meekly  retired  to  the  right  wing 
of  the  building. 

Two  of  the  finest  chefs  in  Sian  were  engaged 
to  provide  the  imperial  meals.  From  the  first  the 
Empress  Dowager  did  not  take  kindly  to  their 
Shensi  methods  of  cooking.  She  constantly  scolded 
them  and  frequently  had  them  punished.  One  night 
the  shed  which  served  as  a  kitchen  caught  fire  and 
burned  to  the  ground.  The  wrath  of  the  Empress 
Dowager  was  kindled  against  the  two  cooks.  She 
had  their  heads  cut  off  in  the  palace  court-yard. 

The  most  picturesque  part  of  the  Sian  palace 
were  the  quarters  set  aside  for  Ta-a-ko,  who  some 
years  ago  was  announced  as  the  Heir-apparent  to 
the  throne  of  China.  His  Royal  Highness  occupied 
a  large  building  in  the  rear  of  the  park,  some  little 
distance  from  the  palace.  In  front  of  his  house  was 
an  artificial  pond  filled  with  gold-fish.  In  one  of 
the  wings  of  Ta-a-ko's  house  was  a  long  hall,  whose 
front-wall  by  a  curious  arrangement  could  be  re- 
moved like  a  screen.  On  hot  summer  days  this 
was  a  favourite  lounging-place  for  young  princes. 
Here  they  reclined  on  divans,  gossiped,  smoked 
their  water-pipes  and  a  little  opium  and  looked  at 
the  gold-fish. 

Ta-a-ko  is  Prince  Tuan's  son.  His  selection  as 
Crown  Prince  was  supposed  to  be  due  to  the  over- 
powering influence  at  court  of  his  father.     It  was 

218 


WHEN    KWANG   SU   WAS   AN    EXILE 

supposed  in  Pekin  that  Ta-a-ko  had  followed  Prince 
Tuan  into  Turkestan.  Instead,  however,  the  Heir 
Apparent  joined  the  exiled  court  in  Sian,  where  he 
at  once  became  the  leader  of  what  might  be  called 
the  younger  set  among  the  Manchu  princes.  Ta-a-ko 
was  the  **  Bonnie  Prince  Charlie  "  of  China.  He 
was  about  nineteen  years  old.  In  the  opinion  of 
almost  everyone  in  Sian,  he  was  the  handsomest 
boy  in  the  Eighteen  Provinces.  Being  a  Manchu 
of  the  blood-royal  he  apparently  found  Sian  a  very 
dull  capital,  and  he  undertook  to  enliven  it  by 
methods  of  his  own.  He  scandalised  the  Sons  of 
Han  by  riding  out  of  the  palace  without  an  attend- 
ant, and  by  frequently  remaining  away  until  after 
the  last  paper  lantern  in  the  streets  had  flickered 
out  in  the  darkness.  A  series  of  adventures  gained 
for  him  the  reputation  of  a  Manchu  Don  Juan. 
Accompanied  by  several  kindred  spirits  of  his  own 
age,  he  frequented  the  cafes  and  restaurants,  and 
was  on  one  occasion  brought  back  in  a  mood  made 
boisterous  by  lingering  too  long  ov^er  a  cup  of  rice- 
wine.  Ta-a-ko  was  greatly  admired  by  the  man- 
darin of  the  palace.  He  never  tired  of  telling  me 
stories  of  the  Crown  Prince,  although  he  said  that 
Ta-a-ko's  gaieties  and  frivolities  had  brought  upon 
him  the  dislike  of  the  "Great  Empress  Mother." 
The  result  of  her  displeasure  was  manifested  in  an 
Imperial  edict  that  was  published  in  Sian  while  I 
was  there. 

The  edict  emanated  from  Kai  Feng,  where  the 

2ig 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

court  was  resting  for  a  few  weeks  before  resuming 
the  homeward  journey  to  Pekin,  and  contained  the 
announcement  that  Ta-a-ko  was  no  longer  heir  to 
the  throne  of  China.  He  had  been  dismissed  from 
the  court  and  had  been  ordered  to  return  to  his 
father  in  Turkestan.  Ta-a-ko  was  such  a  good  fel- 
low and  his  wanting  to  have  a  good  time  was  such  a 
rare  Chinese  fault  that  these  characteristics  might 
have  proved  an  antidote  to  hereditary  narrowness 
and  fanaticism.  One  can  hardly  help  regretting 
that  he  will  never  sit  cross-legged  on  the  throne 
of  the  black-haired  people.  In  order  to  propitiate 
the  foreign  allies  Shensi's  governor  Tuan  Fang  was 
transferred  to  the  richer  and  more  important  prov- 
ince of  Hupeh  and  it  was  officially  announced  that 
his  promotion  was  due  to  the  fact  that  he  had  pre- 
vented the  Boxers  from  murdering  the  missionaries. 
In  Tuan  Fang's  place,  a  mandarin  named  Sheng 
was  appointed  Governor  of  Shensi.  One  night  a 
party  of  young  Manchu  swells  who  were  members 
of  Ta-a-ko's  set  started  out  to  paint  Sian  a  tint  of 
the  Imperial  red.  They  became  very  uproarious, 
they  broke  shop-windows  and  they  succeeded  in 
creating  considerable  disturbance.  They  were  ar- 
rested by  the  governor's  servants  and  locked  up  in 
the  city  jail.  When  they  were  brought  before 
Sheng  in  the  morning  they  treated  him  with  great 
haughtiness.  They  told  him  that  they  were  princes 
of  the  Empire,  that  their  rank  was  much  higher 
than  his  and  that  they  did  not  recognise  his  author- 


WHEN    KWANG   SU    WAS   AN    EXILE 

ity.  Sheng  promptly  told  the  young  princes  that 
they  were  in  Shensi  now,  a  province  where  Man- 
chus  counted  for  very  little,  and  that  as  Governor 
of  old  Shensi  he  proposed  to  enforce  the  laws.  He 
then  gave  them  a  lecture  on  the  proper  conduct  of 
princes  and  dismissed  them  with  a  severe  reprimand, 
telling  them  that  if  they  again  disturbed  the  peace 
and  quiet  of  his  capital,  they  would  be  treated  as 
common  criminals.  The  princes  hurried  back  to 
the  palace  and  told  their  troubles  to  the  Empress 
Dowager,  but  she  only  gave  them  another  scolding 
and  complimented  the  governor  on  his  impartiality 
and  courage. 

From  time  immemorial  it  has  been  the  custom 
for  Emperors  of  China  to  hold  audiences  before 
daybreak.  The  greater  the  rank  of  the  official  the 
earlier  is  the  hour  at  which  he  is  received  by  his 
sovereign.  While  in  Sian  the  sessions  of  the  Em- 
press Dowager's  council  were  at  four  o'clock  in 
the  morninor.  Minor  officials  of  the  court  were 
received  between  six  and  seven,  while  the  Governor 
of  Shensi  and  the  mandarins  were  not  admitted 
until  ten  o'clock.  The  routine  business  of  the  day 
was  usually  finished  by  noon,  when  the  Empress 
Dowager  passed  upon  the  daily  correspondence 
which  Wang  Wen  Shau,  of  the  foreign  office,  was 
carrying  on  with  Li  Hung  Chang  and  Prince 
Ching  in  Pekin.  As  successor  to  Li  Hung  Chang, 
Wang  Wen  Shau  is  now  minister  plenipotentiary 
to  the  foreign  powers.     He  was  known  in  Sian  as 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

a  kindly,  amiable  old  man  who  was  never  a  violent 
partisan  but  was  always  devotedly  attached  to  the 
Empress  Dowager. 

Among  the  familiar  figures  in  the  court-yards 
of  the  old  viceroy's  yamen  were  several  men  whom 
the  Boxers  had  recognised  as  leaders  and  whose 
whereabouts  were  unknown  to  foreign  generals. 
The  fanatical  hatred  which  these  men  entertained 
toward  foreigners  was  no  less  extreme  in  Sian  than 
it  had  been  in  Pekin.  They  urged  the  Empress 
Dowager  to  make  another  effort  to  rid  China  of 
the  barbarians  from  the  West,  but  fortunately  the 
strange  woman  who  rules  the  Middle  Kingdom  had 
learned  a  lesson,  and  for  the  time  being  she  lis- 
tened to  the  councils  of  the  more  moderate  party. 
On  one  occasion  Rung  Lu  is  said  to  have  delivered 
a  sort  of  lecture  on  the  pretensions  of  foreigners. 
He  maintained  that  they  all  came  from  one  small 
island,  which  was  now  almost  depopulated  because 
of  the  large  number  of  its  inhabitants  that  had 
emigrated  to  China.  In  order  to  deceive  and  cheat 
the  Chinese  the  foreigners  called  themselves  by  the 
names  of  different  nationalities,  as  French  or  Ger- 
man or  English  ;  they  really  were  all  of  the  same 
race  and  spoke  but  one  language.  According  to 
Mr.  Rung  Lu,  the  foreigners  have  a  custom  of 
changing  their  nationalities  as  they  would  a  dis- 
guise, so  that  a  German  on  Monday  is  often  a 
Frenchmen  on  Tuesday. 

The  belief  prevails  on  our  side  of  the  world  that 

222 


WHEN    KWANG   SU   WAS   AN    EXILE 

China  is  without  newspapers,  save  the  rather  weak 
imitations  of  foreign  publications  that  are  printed  in 
the  treaty  ports.  For  centuries  one  or  more  "  Im- 
perial Edicts"  have  emanated  every  day  from  the 
capital  of  the  Empire.  These  edicts  are  quite  dif- 
ferent from  what  the  name  would  imply  in  Europe 
or  America.  Besides  containing  copies  of  the 
general  orders  to  the  mandarins,  the  edicts  consti- 
tute a  record  of  all  the  official  acts  of  the  govern- 
ment. They  give  the  reasons  for  every  order  and 
review  each  case.  A  compilation  of  the  edicts  is  an 
excellent  commentary  on  happenings  in  China  and 
is  a  very  fair  substitute  for  a  newspaper.  The  chief 
fault  is  the  mortuary  character  of  most  of  the  news 
they  contain.  "  We  have  this  day  cut  off  the  head 
of  the  mandarin  of  so  and  so,  because  he  stole 
from  the  taxes  or  was  disloyal,  or  because  he  sym- 
pathised with  a  rebellion."  This  is  the  form  of  in- 
troductory paragraph  most  frequently  found  in  im- 
perial edicts.  Following  the  statement  that  the 
mandarin  has  expiated  his  crimes  is  a  neat  little 
obituary  notice,  telling  when  and  where  he  was 
born,  the  various  positions  he  had  held,  and  the 
names  of  his  sons.  As  soon  as  an  edict  is  issued  it 
is  immediately  telegraphed  to  the  governors  of  the 
provinces,  and  by  them  is  disseminated  among  the 
subordinate  mandarins.  An  official  of  the  court 
has  the  privilege  of  publishing  a  monthly  edition  of 
the  edicts  in  magazine  form.  Bound  in  yellow 
covers,   they  are    sold  to    subscribers  all    over   the 

223 


THROUGH    HIDDEN   SHENSl 

Empire.  Scattered  about  the  palace  in  Slan  I 
found  several  copies  of  the  edicts.  They  were 
mussed  and  crumpled  very  much  as  newspapers 
might  be  that  have  lingered  over  night  in  a  club- 
room  at  home. 

When  the  Emperor  came  to  Sian,  he  entered  by 
the  east  gate.  For  that  reason  it  was  necessary  for 
him  in  leaving  the  city  of  his  exile  to  pass  through 
the  west  gate,  although  the  route  of  the  return 
journey  to  Pekin  lay  to  the  eastward  through  the 
province  of  Honan,  and,  as  far  as  Tung  Kwan,  was 
the  same  over  which  he  had  previously  travelled. 
It  is  considered  a  day  of  evil  omen  for  China  when 
the  Emperor  leaves  a  city  by  the  same  gate  through 
which  he  has  passed  into  it. 

The  procession  on  the  day  of  departure  was  a 
triumph  for  the  Empress  Dowager.  It  was  in- 
tended to  impress  the  Sons  of  Han  with  the  fact 
that  China  had  again  risen  supreme  among  the  na- 
tions. The  barbarians  had  been  compelled  to  re- 
tire ;  they  no  longer  desecrated  the  capital,  and  the 
Son  of  Heaven  could  once  more  set  up  the  dragon- 
throne  in  the  city  of  the  Manchus.  Pekin  prece- 
dents were  discarded,  and  the  Sianese,  kneeling  by 
thousands  in  the  road,  were  allowed  to  gaze  upon 
the  faces  of  their  sovereigns.  Kwang  Su  led  the 
procession  in  a  yellow  sedan  chair.  The  Empress 
Dowager  came  next,  followed  by  the  Empress,  the 
first  wife  of  Kwang  Su.  Ta-a-ko,  in  a  purple  chair, 
was  the  fourth  member  of  the  party.     Behind  him 

224 


WHEN   KWANG   SU   WAS   AN   EXILE 

came  a  retinue  of  wives,  princes  and  court-attaches, 
besides  a  body-guard  of  more  than  three  thousand 
soldiers.  Passing  through  the  gate  the  procession 
made  a  circuit  of  the  city  outside  of  the  walls  and 
then  began  the  long  lingering  stages  of  the  home- 
ward journey.  Sheng,  Governor  of  Shensi,  was 
given  the  great  honor  of  superintending  the  hun- 
dreds of  luggage-carts  which  preceded  the  main 
procession  by  ten  miles. 

The  young  men  of  the  court,  who  were  still 
smarting  under  the  rebuke  Sheng  had  given  them 
in  Sian,  devised  a  plan  of  revenge.  They  bribed  a 
muleteer  to  allow  a  long  train  of  donkeys  to  inter- 
cept the  baggage-train  from  a  cross  defile  in  the 
mountains  east  of  the  Tung  Kvvan.  So  far  as  creat- 
ing the  confusion  that  Sheng's  enemies  desired,  the 
plot  worked  admirably.  The  donkeys  ran  in  and 
out  among  the  carts,  frightening  horses  and  upset- 
ting luggage.  It  was  several  hours  before  order  was 
restored  in  the  vanguard,  and  in  the  meantime  the 
Empress  Dowager  arrived  on  the  scene.  She  was 
furious  at  this  delay  in  her  progress,  and  sent  for 
Sheng.  Kneeling  beside  her  chair,  he  said  that  this 
was  the  saddest  hour  of  his  life  ;  he  expressed  a  wil- 
lingness to  have  his  head  cut  off,  then  and  there,  if  by 
doing  so  he  could  add  to  his  sovereign's  peace  of 
mind.  He  did  not  deny  that  he  was  responsible  for 
all  the  trouble,  but  he  added  that  he  knew  the  reason 
why  the  donkeys  had  tried  to  cross  his  carts.  It  was 
because  the  boys  were  at  their  old  tricks  again.    The 

225 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

Empress  Dowager  promptly  pardoned  Sheng.  Her 
wrath  was  diverted  to  the  boys.  She  talked  to  them 
about  the  pleasure  it  would  give  her  to  cut  off  the 
heads  of  several  young  Manchus  if  there  were  any 
more  trouble  with  the  baggage-train.  Sheng  and  his 
carts  encountered  no  more  donkeys,  and  within 
three  weeks  afterward  poor  Ta-a-ko  was  cashiered. 

As  he  approached  the  gate  of  a  Shensi  town,  the 
Emperor  usually  alighted  from  his  chair  and  knelt 
in  the  dust  until  the  Empress  Dowager  had  passed 
on  the  way  to  her  yamen  or  kung  kwan.  For  the 
five  months  consumed  by  the  homeward  journey 
the  real  capital  of  China  was  the  yellow  sedan  chair 
of  the  contradictory  old  woman  who  was  slowly 
moving  across  her  dominions.  Every  day,  with 
great  regularity,  came  the  edicts,  always  dated  from 
the  place  where  the  chair  happened  to  be  resting. 
They  showed  that  the  Empress  Dowager  was  cer- 
tainly not  leading  an  idle  life.  The  question  upper- 
most in  her  mind  seemed  always  to  be  "  Whose 
head  will  come  off  to-day  ?  " 

The  Empress  Dowager  came  to  Shensi  only  a 
few  months  after  all  the  missionaries  had  been  ex- 
pelled from  it.  Mission  chapels  had  been  burned 
and  converts  terrorised.  About  half  the  popula- 
tion sympathised  with  the  Boxers,  and  the  other 
half  bitterly  opposed  them.  The  long-continued 
drought  had  made  thousands  homeless  and  desper- 
ate. Petty  mandarins,  taking  advantage  of  the 
freedom  from  restraint  that  followed  the  disordered 

226 


WHEN    KWANG   SU   WAS   AN    EXILE 

state  of  the  Empire  were  plundering  and  taxing 
their  helpless  subjects.  Not  since  the  Mohamme- 
dan rebellion  had  the  old  province  been  so  turbulent 
and  distressed. 

When  Tsz'  Hi,  Empress  Dowager  of  China,  left 
Sian  the  Boxer  movement  had  been  so  effectually 
suppressed  that  missionaries  could  travel  anywhere 
in  the  province  with  perfect  safety,  and  were  every- 
where received  far  more  cordially  than  they  had 
ever  been  before.  The  people  had  gone  back  to 
their  farms.  Excessive  "squeezing"  by  mandarins 
had  been  stopped  by  cutting  off  the  heads  of  the 
principal  offenders.     Shensi  was  at  "  Peace." 

The  Empress  Dowager  is  undoubtedly  a  very 
wicked  woman.  She  richly  deserves  the  title  of 
"  The  Jezebel  of  China,"  by  which  she  is  often 
referred  to  in  missionary  reports  ;  but  if  I  were 
a  Chinese  resident  of  Sian,  who,  with  Chinese  eyes, 
had  watched  the  progress  of  recent  events  in  Shensi, 
I  confess  that  I,  too,  should  feel  inclined  to  say 
"  May  she  live  a  thousand  years  !  " 


227 


CHAPTER   XV 

SHENSrS  FAMINE 

DURING  the  three  years  that  preceded  July, 
1 90 1,  more  than  two  million  men,  women, 
and  children  died  from  hunger  in  Shensi.  Ac- 
cording to  the  "Statesmen's  Year  Book"  for  1899, 
the  population  of  the  province  was  8,432,193. 
Thirty  per  cent,  of  this  number  perished  in  the 
famine  that  came  because  rain  failed.  The  reaping 
of  so  fearful  a  death-harvest  in  almost  any  other 
country  would  have  been  a  subject  of  world-wide 
comment  and  the  country  that  suffered  would  have 
received  the  universal  sympathy  of  Christendom. 
But  Shensi  is  so  near  to  the  edge  of  what  the  West 
calls  the  world  that  in  the  long  perspective,  any- 
thing that  can  happen  in  the  old  province  is  small 
and  inconsequent.  With  the  exception  of  a  few  con- 
tributors from  England,  through  missionary  chan- 
nels, the  only  people  who  took  the  slightest  interest 
in  the  starving  yellow  race  were  Americans.  In 
the  United  States  a  fund  was  raised,  which  was 
forwarded  to  Shensi  through  a  missionary  com- 
mittee, whose  head-quarters  were  in  Tientsin. 

The  primary  cause  of  the  famine  was  drought. 
In   any   agricultural    community   the    absence    of 

228 


SHENSrS   FAMINE 

rain  for  three  years  would  have  caused  suffering 
and  privation,  but  the  death-harvest  would  never 
have  followed,  had  it  not  been  that  Shensi  was 
exceptionally  remote  and  isolated.  The  province 
is  enclosed  on  the  south  and  west  by  high  moun- 
tain ranges  and  separated  from  the  coast  by  other 
mountains  and  wide  plains,  so  that  it  is  impossible 
to  bring  food  into  Shensi  from  without.  When 
the  resources  of  the  province  fail,  there  is  no  alter- 
native but  death  from  hunger  for  its  people. 

From  the  borders  of  Mongolia  to  the  Wei  Ho 
River  the  soil  of  Shensi  is  a  kind  of  porous  loess. 
When  well  watered  it  is  of  much  the  same  nature 
as  clay  and  is  well  adapted  to  the  cultivation  of 
millet  and  corn,  which  are  the  chief  articles  of  food 
in  the  province,  but  the  absorbent  soil  of  the  tree- 
less plain  will  not  retain  water  for  any  length  of 
time,  and  with  even  a  slight  diminution  of  the  rain- 
fall, the  ground  turns  to  a  dry,  white  powder,  in 
which  the  crops  parch  and  wither  and  die.  Drought 
and  famine  are  conditions  not  new  to  the  hidden 
province.  The  history  of  almost  every  dynasty 
contains  the  record  of  a  famine  that  raged  in 
Shensi.  In  a.d.  595  the  Emperor  Yang-Kien  was 
compelled  to  emigrate,  with  his  court,  from  Sian 
to  the  province  of  Honan,  because  there  was  not 
food  enough  in  Shensi  even  for  the  Emperor. 

Previous  to  the  recent  famine  the  last  showers 
of  rain  were  in  the  spring  of  1898,  and  from  that  time 
until  May,  1901,  not  a  drop  of  water  fell  anywhere 

229 


THROUGH    HIDDEN   SHENSI 

in  sixty-three  of  the  seventy-two  Shens  of  the  prov- 
ince. The  small  reserve  of  food  that  the  farmers 
had  stored  in  the  granaries  of  the  villages  was  soon 
exhausted.  Wells  and  rivers,  that  helped  to  irri- 
gate the  plain,  dried  up.  All  the  smaller  tribu- 
taries of  the  Yellow  River  and  the  Wei  Ho  dis- 
appeared. The  entire  country  became  one  vast, 
white,  parched  desert.  With  the  failure  of  rain 
the  provincial  government  realised  that  Shensi  was 
once  more  face  to  face  with  an  awful  famine.  With 
the  limited  means  at  their  command  they  took 
steps  to  meet  the  emergency.  Appeals  for  assist- 
ance were  sent  to  other  parts  of  the  Empire.  The 
response  in  money  was  generous,  but  money  could 
not  buy  food  when  there  was  none  for  sale.  Some 
even  of  the  rich  men  in  Shensi  towns  found  it 
difficult  to  obtain  flour  and  provisions  at  any  price. 
The  price  of  a  bushel  of  wheat  rose  from  400  to 
6,000  cash.  Bread  was  sold  at  120  cash,  just  ten 
times  its  value  under  ordinary  conditions. 

With  the  continued  desolation  of  their  fields, 
the  farmers  began  flocking  into  Sian.  During  the 
winter  of  1900-01  more  than  300,000  villagers,  des- 
perate and  starving,  made  their  way  to  the  capital  of 
the  province.  Owing  to  a  fear  of  bread  riots,  the 
Governor  did  not  allow  them  within  the  city  walls. 
The  famine  sufferers  were  compelled  to  live  in  fields 
in  the  suburbs.  For  shelter  they  dug  caves  in  the 
clay  banks  by  the  side  of  the  road,  and  they  made 
their  death  lingering  by  eating  coarse  grass  and 

230 


SHENSrS   FAMINE 

weeds.  All  around  Sian  when  I  visited  it  were 
these  grim,  blackened  caves.  They  were  nearly  all 
empty.  The  men,  women,  and  children  who  had 
lived  in  them  were  all  dead.  According  to  native 
statistics  130,000  perished  from  hunger  in  one  sub- 
urb. On  the  morning  of  each  day  for  three  months 
more  than  600  bodies  were  collected  by  the  gover- 
nor's servants,  and  were  buried  in  a  field  near  the 
eastern  gate.  As  a  result  of  famine-conditions  a 
disease  that  seemed  a  combination  of  dysentery  and 
cholera  broke  out  in  Sian,  causing  the  death  of 
hundreds  of  residents  of  the  city,  who  had  escaped 
the  worst  rigours  of  hunger. 

And  all  the  time  food  was  becoming  scarcer. 
By-and-by  human  flesh  began  to  be  sold  in  the 
suburbs  of  Sian.  At  first  the  traffic  was  carried  on 
clandestinely,  but  after  a  time  a  horrible  kind  of 
meat  ball,  made  from  the  bodies  of  human  beings 
who  had  died  of  hunger,  became  a  staple  article  of 
food,  that  was  sold  for  the  equivalent  of  about  four 
American  cents  a  pound.  The  trade  in  human 
flesh  had  assumed  considerable  proportions  before 
it  was  summarily  stopped  by  Tuan  Fang,  the  Gov- 
ernor, who  cut  off  the  heads  of  three  men  who  dealt 
in  it. 

Tuan  Fang  appointed  a  relief  committee,  whose 
members  were  prominent  merchants  and  bankers 
of  the  city.  They  opened  thirty-two  soup-kitchens 
in  Sian  for  the  hungry  in  the  suburbs.  From  the 
mandarins  the  committee  obtained  lists  of  destitute 

231 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

families.  The  committee  had  charge  of  the  3,000,000 
taels  contributed  from  native  sources  during  the 
three  years  of  famine.  The  money  came  from  the 
Imperial  treasury  in  Pekin,  from  Shensi  provincial 
funds,  and  from  Chinese  charitable  societies.  The 
relief  funds  were  further  augmented  by  the  sale  of 
degrees.  That  the  government  should  resort  to 
such  a  step  is  proof  of  the  straits  to  which  it  had 
been  reduced  in  contending  with  the  hunger-cloud 
which  overhung  the  country.  Under  ordinary  con- 
ditions it  is  sometimes  possible  for  a  man  to  obtain 
his  degree  by  bribing  the  official  who  conducts  the 
examination,  but,  however  it  may  be  obtained,  a 
degree  is  absolutely  essential  for  an  appointment 
as  mandarin.  At  the  direction  of  the  Governor, 
degrees  in  Shensi  were  offered,  without  an  examina- 
tion, to  anyone  who  would  pay  a  certain  amount  to 
the  famine-fund.  Awful  as  were  conditions  in 
Sian,  the  suffering  in  the  country  was  worse,  if 
such  a  thing  could  be  possible.  Whole  villages 
subsisted  for  a  while  on  cats  and  dogs  and  horse- 
meat,  and  then  slowly  starved  to  death.  In  order 
to  buy  food  the  farmers  sold  first  their  scanty  stock 
of  furniture  and  farming  tools,  then  the  roofs  of 
their  houses,  and,  lastly,  their  children. 

When  Chinese  parents,  with  all  of  their  intense 
love  for  their  little  ones,  can  be  induced  to  sell  them, 
the  worst  and  last  phase  of  famine-horrors  has  been 
reached.  There  is  always  a  market  for  children  in 
China,  and  the  demand  is  usually  far  greater  than 

232 


SHENSrS   FAMINE 

the  supply.  Housemaids  and  women  in  domestic 
service  in  the  interior  towns  usually  receive  no 
wages.  Until  they  are  married  they  are  the  prop- 
erty of  their  masters,  who  have  purchased  them 
when  they  were  little  girls.  Since  the  advent  of 
foreigners  and  treaty-port  civilisation,  girls  are 
bought  and  sold  to  a  worse  fate  than  that  of  Chi- 
nese servants.  In  all  parts  of  the  Empire  a  traffic 
goes  on  more  or  less  all  the  time  in  girls  who  are 
orphans,  or  who,  because  of  their  parents'  opium 
habits,  have  become  a  public  charge  on  the  com- 
munity. 

Mencius  taught  that  the  worst  crime  a  man 
can  commit  is  to  leave  no  son  to  worship  at  the 
ancestral  altar.  If  a  man  is  childless  he  must 
buy  a  boy,  whom  he  brings  up  as  his  son,  and 
who  is  bound  to  him  by  the  same  obligations  of 
filial  piety  as  though  he  were  his  own.  But  the 
same  reason  which  makes  some  men  willing  to 
pay  a  high  price  for  a  little  boy  makes  fathers  very 
loath  to  part  with  their  sons.  Apart  from  his  great 
love  for  him,  every  Chinese  father  likes  to  think 
that  when  he  is  dead  the  little  boy  now  trudging 
beside  him  in  the  field  will  worship  before  a  tablet 
to  his  memory.  It  is  only  in  time  of  famine  that 
a  poor  farmer  who  is  the  father  of  a  large  family 
will  sometimes  consent  to  sell  one  or  two  of  his 
sons,  to  save  the  rest  of  his  children  from  death  by 
starvation.  When  the  famine  was  at  its  worst  in 
Shensi,  men  in  carts  appeared  in  Sian      They  were 

233 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

speculators  whose  business  was  the  buying  of  chil- 
dren in  the  famine-market.  Starting  from  Sian 
as  a  headquarters  for  the  trade,  they  made  excur- 
sions into  the  surrounding  country.  From  the 
dwellers  in  the  caves  and  from  the  villagers  they 
bought  hundreds  of  children.  The  ordinary  price 
of  a  little  boy  was  about  2,000  cash,  while  a  little 
girl  could  be  purchased  for  half  that  sum.  The  chil- 
dren were  bought  at  wholesale,  and  were  sent  away 
to  be  retailed  all  over  China. 

These  were  the  sad  conditions  of  old  Shensi 
when  the  Empress  Dowager  and  her  manage  came 
to  Sian.  The  coming  of  the  Court  was  dreaded, 
because  it  meant  10,000  more  mouths  to  feed 
from  the  ever-diminishing  supply  of  food.  But 
the  "Jezebel  of  China"  brought  the  first  real  relief 
that  Shensi  had  known  for  three  stricken  years. 
Immediately  upon  her  arrival  she  instituted  be- 
tween Sian  and  the  cities  of  the  south  and  east 
a  system  of  government  caravans,  to  bring  supplies 
of  food  in  quantities  that  had  been  impossible  for 
the  provincial  government  to  obtain,  with  the 
limited  means  at  its  command.  Besides  providing 
for  the  soldiers  and  the  attendants  of  the  court, 
the  caravans  brought,  in  addition,  a  supply  of  corn 
and  flour,  whose  sale  in  open  market  tended  to 
relieve  the  hunger-suffering. 

By  a  personal  study  of  famine-conditions,  the 
Empress  Dowager  discovered  that  the  large  contri- 
butions of   money  from    native  sources  had  done 

234 


SHENSI'S   FAMINE 

little  to  relieve  the  distress  of  the  people  of  the 
province.  With  her  long  experience  of  the  pecu- 
liarities of  mandarins  she  reached  the  conclusion 
that  a  part  of  the  funds  had  been  "squeezed"  by 
the  officials  to  whom  they  had  been  given  for  dis- 
tribution. According  to  the  story  told  in  Sian,  the 
Great  Empress-Mother  appeared  one  day  at  a  meet- 
ing of  her  council,  carrying  in  one  hand  ten  taels  of 
silver,  and  in  the  other  a  string  of  copper  cash. 
"  This  is  a  riddle,"  she  said,  "which  I  want  you  to 
answer."  When  her  councillors  pronounced  its  so- 
lution impossible,  she  explained  that  the  silver  rep- 
resented what  had  been  given  to  the  people  of 
Shensi  and  the  cash  the  amount  they  had  received. 
To  determine  where  the  difference  between  the  sil- 
ver and  the  copper  had  gone,  an  examination  of 
famine-accounts  followed,  that  ended  in  cutting  off 
the  heads  of  three  of  the  most  prominent  man- 
darins of  the  province.  From  that  time  famine- 
funds  had  immunity  from  "  squeezing." 

Early  in  May,  1901,  the  rain  fell  again  in  Shensi. 
It  enabled  some  of  the  farmers  to  plant  their  fields. 
The  rain  was  followed  by  an  edict  announcing  that 
the  famine  was  over  and  that  no  more  contributions 
were  needed  from  other  parts  of  the  Empire.  But 
it  was  still  five  months  to  the  harvest  and  the  daily 
death-rate  was  nearly  as  large  as  ever,  although  the 
government  caravans  had  caused  a  change  in  the 
situation.  In  Sian  food  brought  from  other  prov- 
inces was  now  obtainable,  but  the  villagers  who 

235 


THROUGH    HIDDEN   SHENSI 

had  survived  the  three  years  of  famine  were  with- 
out means  to  purchase  it.  Soon  after  the  first  rain- 
fall, the  first  American  relief  money  was  brought  to 
Shensi  by  Mr.  Duncan.  The  Empress  Dowager 
heard  of  his  coming,  and  expressed  a  wish  that 
everything  possible  should  be  done  to  aid  him.  It 
was  largely  due  to  her  approval  that  he  received  the 
co-operation  and  support  of  every  official  in  the 
province,  from  the  governor  to  the  Shen  mandarins. 
The  laws  of  Shensi  forbid  the  use  of  a  public  build- 
ing by  a  foreigner,  but  that  Mr.  Duncan  might  not 
lack  proper  facilities  for  conducting  the  distribu- 
tion of  the  famine-funds  in  his  charge,  the  native 
relief  committee  placed  at  his  disposal  as  an  office 
and  residence,  a  large  building  in  the  heart  of 
Sian,  the  city  from  which  less  than  a  year  before 
all  foreigners  had  been  expelled.  Over  the  gate- 
way of  Mr.  Duncan's  house  was  placed  a  sign 
inscribed  with  the  words  "American  kung 
kwan." 

All  of  the  thousands  of  taels  at  Mr.  Duncan's 
disposal  were  distributed  through  Chinese  channels 
in  accordance  with  Chinese  methods.  The  basis  of 
his  calculations  of  the  extent  of  famine-sufferinsf, 
were  the  lists  that  had  been  compiled  by  the  native 
relief  committee  and  which  were  placed  at  his  dis- 
posal. Arranged  in  columns  on  the  pages  of  a 
Chinese  famine-list,  are  characters  that  represent 
the  needy  families  of  the  district.  The  name  of 
the  husband  and  father  always  appears  at  the  top 

236 


SHENSrS   FAMINE 

of  the  page.  The  women  and  children  dependent 
upon  him  are  referred  to  as  "mouths"  and  are 
entered  in  the  list  by  number  and  not  by  name. 
By  men  in  his  own  employ,  Mr.  Duncan  verified  the 
accuracy  of  the  lists  of  "  mouths,"  and  to  the  head 
of  each  family  he  gave  a  ticket  entitling  him  to  a 
share  of  the  American  famine-fund.  The  man- 
darin was  then  informed  on  what  day  the  distri- 
bution would  take  place  in  his  Shen.  The  head 
men  of  the  villages  notified  all  holders  of  tickets 
to  assemble  on  the  appointed  day  at  some  building 
which  he  designated  for  the  purpose.  These  build- 
ings selected  for  a  famine-distribution  were  usually 
temples  or  yamens.  They  were  always  of  an  essen- 
tially Chinese  character  and  were  the  last  places  on 
earth  where,  under  ordinary  conditions,  a  foreigner 
would  be  welcome. 

At  each  public  distribution  the  Shen  Mandarin 
presided,  order  was  maintained  by  his  soldiers  and 
servants,  and  the  money  was  paid  out  by  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  relief  committee  in  Sian.  Mr. 
Duncan  personally  supervised  each  famine-distribu- 
tion, and  he  held  the  mandarins  to  a  strict  account 
for  every  tael  paid  out ;  but  he  always  acted  on  the 
principle  that  as  the  money  was  for  Chinese,  the 
men  best  qualified  to  manage  the  details  of  its  dis- 
tribution were  Chinese  officials.  Besides  this,  Mr. 
Duncan  believed  in  the  Chinese  on  general  princi- 
ples and  respected  them ;  they  on  their  part  liked 
him,  and  as  a  result  there  was  no  prejudice  against 

237 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

foreigners,  in  the  distribution  of  American  famine 
relief  funds  in  Shensi. 

Tlie  transportation  of  the  money  from  Sian  to 
the  place  of  distribution  was  one  of  the  most  diffi- 
cult problems  of  the  work.  Cash  strings  were  the 
only  available  medium  by  which  the  funds  could 
be  disbursed  in  small  amounts.  A  string  of  cash 
whose  value  is  about  seventy  cents  weighs  more 
than  four  pounds,  so  that  the  equivalent  of  com- 
paratively few  American  dollars  constituted  a  load 
for  a  cart  drawn  by  two  mules.  To  distribute  $800 
at  Lintoun,  fifty- two  carts  were  necessary  to  carry 
the  cash.  The  experiment  was  tried  of  disbursing 
the  money  in  promissory  notes  issued  by  the  local 
bank  of  the  Shen  where  the  distribution  took 
place,  but  this  method  had  to  be  abandoned,  be- 
cause the  cashing  at  one  time  of  so  many  notes 
caused  runs  on  the  banks  that  almost  caused 
riots. 

Through  Anglo-Saxon  channels  the  American 
money  could  get  no  nearer  to  Sian  than  Hankow. 
By  arrangement  with  a  Chinese  bank  at  that  place, 
relief  funds  were  telegraphed  in  instalments  to  the 
banks  in  Sian,  who  at  first  demanded  an  exorbitant 
rate  of  exchange.  When  the  Governor,  Li  Shao 
Fen,  was  apprised  of  the  fact,  he  sent  one  of  his 
secretaries  down  to  the  banking  street,  to  say  that 
His  Excellency  was  pained  to  learn  that  the  banks 
would  rob  his  starving  people,  by  charging  a  high 
rate  of  exchange  on  money  that  Americans  had  sent 

238 


SHENSI'S   FAMINE 

to  their  relief ;  and  that  the  next  banker  who  de- 
manded more  than  the  ordinary  rate  would  be  pun- 
ished. The  bankers  knew  that  punishments  by  the 
Governor,  frequently  ended  fatally  for  the  offender. 
They  decided  that  their  heads  were  worth  more 
than  the  profits  of  exchange.  After  the  visit  of  the 
Governor's  secretary,  the  cost  of  sending  money 
into  Sian  for  famine  purposes  was  very  inconsider- 
able. 

A  distribution  of  American  famine  relief 
funds  to  the  families  who  still  lived  in  the  caves 
took  place  while  I  was  in  Sian.  The  place  desig- 
nated by  the  governor  was  the  Temple  of  the  Five 
Sacred  Mountains,  the  largest  of  all  the  city  tem- 
ples. When  Mr.  Duncan  and  I  alighted  from  our 
carts  at  the  appointed  hour  on  the  morning  of  the 
distribution,  we  found  more  than  3,000  men,  women, 
and  children  huddled  in  the  court-yard  of  the  temple. 
They  were  all  in  rags  ;  their  hair  was  matted  ;  their 
faces  were  emaciated,  and  wore  that  look  of  hope- 
less want  that  only  hunger  can  stamp  on  human 
countenances.  The  temple-yard  was  divided  into 
two  parts  by  a  kind  of  high  fence  which  surmounted 
a  stone  platform  extending  from  one  side  of  the  yard 
to  the  other.  Waiting  for  us  on  the  platform  were 
the  chairman  of  the  relief  committee,  a  score  of  man- 
darins, and  about  fifty  soldiers  and  servants.  The 
crowd  were  driven  back  into  the  rear  yard,  from 
which  they  were  admitted  in  single  file  through  a 
gate  in  the  fence.     As  they  passed  our  table  we 

239 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

gave  to  each  bank  notes  in  denominations  of  from 
500  to  2,500  cash. 

Such  gratitude  as  these  poor  starving  men  and 
women  of  the  old  yellow  race  manifested  I  have 
never  seen  equalled  anywhere  in  the  world.  Many 
of  them  wept  as  the  brown  paper  bank  notes  passed 
from  our  hands  to  theirs.  In  the  narrow  space 
between  our  table  and  the  line  of  soldiers,  they 
one  by  one  dropped  on  the  stone  floor  and  made 
pitiful  attempts  at  kow-tows.  The  shi  jang  by  my 
side  seemed  to  be  of  the  opinion  that  a  kow-tow 
was  no  more  than  our  due,  but  I  told  him  that  as 
an  American  barbarian  I  preferred  to  see  men 
standing  erect  at  all  times,  and  at  my  request  he 
put  a  stop  to  the  kow-tows.  The  work  of  giving 
money  to  the  hungry  crowd  lasted  five  hours,  but 
after  the  last  man  with  a  bank  note  in  his  hand  had 
disappeared  through  the  temple  gate,  the  mandarins 
would  not  allow  Mr.  Duncan  and  myself  to  leave 
until  they  had  drawn  up  all  the  soldiers  in  line  to 
salute  us  by  dropping  on  one  knee. 

In  the  feeding  of  thousands  of  human  mouths 
by  the  American  dollars  that  the  Christian  Herald 
had  collected  there  were  no  distinctions  of  race  or 
creed  or  politics.  Among  the  men  and  women 
in  Shensi  who  received  the  cash  strings  were  Box- 
ers and  Taoists  and  Mohammedans.  They  were  all 
Chinese,  they  were  human  beings,  and  they  were 
fed.  Before  the  coming  of  the  American  money  to 
Sian  it  is  probable  that  two-thirds  of  the  inhabitants 

240 


SHENSrS   FAMINE 

of  Shensi  had  never  heard  of  the  United  States. 
To-day,  from  one  end  of  the  province  to  the  other, 
it  is  known  as  the  one  foreign  nation  that  is  really 
a  friend,  and  whose  people,  though  barbarians,  are 
strangely  kind. 


241 


CHAPTER    XVI 

AROUND   ABOUT   SIAN 

TO  get  a  better  idea  of  the  ravages  of  famine 
throughout  the  province  of  Shensi,  I  passed 
five  days  in  an  abandoned  mission  station  in  the 
town  of  San  Yuan,  about  thirty  miles  north  of  Sian. 
Accompanied  by  a  missionary  who  had  assisted  Mr. 
Duncan  in  his  relief  work,  we  made  excursions  from 
San  Yuan  out  across  the  plain  of  Sian.  The  coun- 
try gave  evidences  of  a  former  dense  population. 
Every  quarter  of  a  mile  a  mud  village  rose  out  of 
the  white,  treeless  desert,  which  stretched  away  to 
the  north,  east,  and  west  like  a  limitless  ocean.  The 
vast  plain  was  silent.  Along  the  old  roads,  all  worn 
and  sunken,  we  met  no  travellers.  No  farmers  were 
in  the  fields.  In  some  of  the  villages  were  groups 
of  half -starved  men  and  children,  the  only  survivors 
of  communities  that  had  perished.  The  plain  was 
silent  because  its  inhabitants  were  dead.  Only  at 
rare  intervals  was  a  house  with  a  roof  visible  any- 
where. The  thatch  of  which  the  roofs  of  Chinese 
houses  are  made  always  finds  a  ready  market  in  the 
towns  as  fuel,  and  as  a  last  resort  before  abandoning 
all  hope  the  starving  villagers  had  sold  the  shelter 
of  their  homes. 

242 


AROUND   ABOUT   SIAN 

Besides  ruined  and  deserted  mud  villages,  the 
only  objects  which  broke  the  monotony  of  the  land- 
scape were  moundsjwhich_dottM^ 
Sian  and  the  fords  of  the  Wei  Ho  River.  The 
mounds  were  built  by  nien^Jbi]t_when  or  for  what 
purpose jsajmy^t^^  ^he  mounds  were  all  pyra- 
midal in  shape.  They  were  made  of  a  kind  of  clay, 
apparently  a  different  material  from  the  loess  of  the 
plain.  Their  sides  were  covered  with  a  verdure  of 
coarse  grass  and  low  bushes.  Although  the  action 
of  time  and  the  elements  had  partly  obliterated  the 
former  angularity  of  the  outline  of  the  mounds, 
their  original  shape  was  still  plainly  discernible. 
Theyjyere_all  square  pyramids,  about  eighty  feet  in 
height  from  the  centre  of  the  plane  of  the  base  to 
the  apex.  The  four  base  lines  of  each  pyramid  are 
of  equal  length,  usually  about  300  feet.  Jt  seemed 
as^houg^lLJJi-intentio&-w€re^  apparent-ift^  theiiLCDn.- 
struction  to  have  the  sides  four  square  with  the 
points  of  the  compass^  The  road  from  Sian  to  San 
Yuan  runs  directly  north,  and  as  we  passed  a  suc- 
cession of  mounds  on  either  side  of  it,  I  noticed 
that  we  were  always  confronted  by  the  face  of  the 
pyramid,  and  never  by  one  of  its  corners.  The 
base  lines  of  its  northern  and  southern  sides  were 
invariably  at  right  angles  with  the  road.  I  found 
also  that,  although  scattered  over  an  area  of  ten 
square  miles,  the  corresponding  sides  of  any  two  of 
the  pyramids  always  faced  in  the  same  way.  Al- 
though  I   did   not  test   accurately  their  points  of 

243 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

direction,  I  am  strongly  of  the  opinion  that  lines 
drawn  at  right  angles  with  the  four  bases  of  the 
sides  of  any  of  the  pyramids  would  lead  directly 
north,  east,  south,  and  west. 

The  mounds  have  always  been  held  in  great 
veneration  by  the  people  of  the  surrounding  country. 
They  are  situated  in  the  midst  of  a  plain  where 
until  the  famine  every  square  foot  of  ground  was 
in  demand  for  cultivation,  yet  no  crop  was  ever 
sown  or  reaped  on  the  sides  of  the  mounds.  They 
are  regarded  as  mysteries,  and  consequently  it  would 
be  bad  luck  for  any  one  to  attempt  to  dig  into  them. 
The  Sianese  explain  them  by  saying  that  they 
mark  the  burial-places  either  of  some  of  the  early 
emperors  or  of  the  great  characters  in  Chinese 
history.  It  was  formerly  the  custom  when  an  em- 
peror died  to  place  his  body  in  an  immense  tomb, 
in  which  his  wives  and  several  hundred  of  his  ser- 
vants were  buried  with  him  in  order  that  they  might 
accompany  him  to  the  spirit-world.  Over  the  whole 
structure  was  built  an  immense  mound.  These 
tombs  of  emperors  are  found  in  various  parts  of 
China,  usually  near  a  city  which  was  once  the 
capital. 

But  to  my  mind  this  theory  does  not  satisfac- 
torily explain  the  mounds  of  the  plain  of  Sian. 
More  than  most  nations,  the  Chinese  keep  a  care- 
ful record  of  their  monuments.  An  accurate  knowl- 
edge of  the  places  where  the  great  ones  of  antiquity 
are  buried  is  part  of   the  ancestor-worship  of  the 

244 


AROUND   ABOUT   SIAN 

country.  If  each  of  the  Shensi  mounds  covered 
the  tomb  of  an  emperor  the  fact  would  be  generally 
known,  and  a  tablet  recording  the  fact  would  be 
placed  near  it.  But  such  is  not  the  case.  No  in- 
scription of  any  kind  is  found  near  the  pyramids. 
Grimly  silent,  they  rise  from  the  plain  as  though 
guarding  some  secret  of  the  past  too  sacred  even 
for  the  Sons  of  Han.  The  shape  of  the  mounds, 
too,  is  another  objection  to  the  idea  that  they  are 
the  burial-places  of  emperors.  Over  an  emperor's 
tomb  was  usually  piled  a  huge  heap  of  earth  of  in- 
discriminate size  and  shape  that  in  time  assumed  a 
rounding  oval  form,  not  unlike  a  natural  hillock. 
But  the  pyramid,  or  anything  like  it,  was  never  at- 
tempted. The  pyramid  is  rare  in  Chinese  archi- 
tecture, although  the  tapering  octagonal  tower  of 
the  pagoda  may  be  an  evolution  from  it. 

A  member  of  our  party  on  the  Han  River  was 
a  scholar  and  teacher  from  Sian,  who  was  excep- 
tionally well  informed  on  the  history  and  monu- 
ments of  Shensi.  In  speaking  one  day  of  the 
mounds  of  Sian  plain,  he  said  that  they  might  have 
been  the  altars  of  the  primitive  religion  that  once 
prevailed  all  over  China.  I  am  not  an  archaeologist, 
and  I  have  never  made  a  study  of  Chinese  monu- 
ments, but  I  must  confess  that  this  explanation 
of  the  pyramids  is  the  most  reasonable  I  have 
ever  heard.  For  several  thousand  years  prior  to 
the  birth  of  Confucius,  551  e.g.,  Shang  Ti,  the 
One  and  Supreme  God,  was  worshipped  in  China. 

24s 


THROUGH    HIDDEN   SHENSI 

As  the  oldest  province,  Shensi  would  naturally  con- 
tain more  evidences  of  the  former  faith  than  any 
other  part  of  the  Empire.  Can  it  be  that  the  name- 
less pyramids  which  for  centuries  have  pointed  up- 
ward from  Sian  plain  are  a  survival  of  the  ancient 
universal  faith  that  began  with  the  race  in  Central 
Asia  and  found  a  manifestation  in  the  pyramids  of 
Egypt  ?  It  is  not  my  intention  to  hazard  a  positive 
opinion  on  the  subject.  A  conjecture  is  permissible 
in  describing  an  unsolved  riddle.  Among  the  mon- 
uments of  the  past  in  China  there  are  not  a  few 
riddles  whose  study  might  add  greatly  to  the  world's 
knowledge  of  many  things.  But  it  will  be  a  long 
time  before  a  solution  of  any  of  the  riddles  can  be 
expected.  They  will  never  be  even  considered 
worth  solving  until  the  West  learns  that  China  is 
something  more  than  a  "Yellow  Peril"  and  a 
**  Mission  Field"  and  a  market  for  opium. 

The  Wei  Ho  River  must  be  crossed  twice  on 
the  way  from  Sian  to  San  Yuan.  The  first  cross- 
ing is  made  by  a  ferry  and  the  second  by  a  ford 
through  the  swift  current.  Ten  miles  to  the  west- 
ward of  the  ford  the  river  dashes  through  a  deep 
gorge,  which  it  seems  to  have  furrowed  for  itself 
below  the  surface  of  the  plain.  The  water  bubbles 
and  foams  between  its  narrow  walls,  but  strong  as 
is  the  current  it  is  considerably  shallower  than  for- 
merly. Just  above  the  point  where  the  Wei  Ho 
again  emerges  on  the  plain  of  Sian,  are  deep  gulleys 
cut  in  the  rock.     They  are  now  several  feet  above 

246 


AROUND   ABOUT    SIAN 

the  stream,  but  they  were  once  used  as  irrigating 
trenches,  to  divert  the  current  across  the  surround- 
ing fields. 

Although  the  climate  of  Shensi  is  about  the 
same  as  that  of  northern  Ohio,  the  country  north 
of  the  Wei  Ho  has  long  been  famous  for  the 
production  of  cotton.  Withered  cotton  plants 
were  everywhere  visible  when  I  rode  over  the 
desert  plain.  Within  a  radius  of  twenty  miles  from 
San  Yuan  the  only  human  beings  I  met  who 
seemed  to  have  been  untouched  by  the  famine  were 
the  twelve  survivors  of  a  village  whose  inhabitants 
had  numbered  almost  a  hundred.  They  were  all 
cotton-spinners,  who  at  the  beginning  of  the 
drought  had  emigrated  to  the  south,  returning  only 
when  the  famine  was  over.  In  one  of  the  two 
rooms  of  the  house  of  the  head  man  was  his  loom. 
He  explained  that  by  working  from  sunrise  to 
sunset  he  was  able  to  weave  enough  cloth  for  a 
wholesale  merchant  in  San  Yuan  to  provide  an 
income  of  about  nineteen  American  cents  a  day. 
His  family  consisted  of  his  wife  and  five-year-old 
son.  They  seemed  very  happy,  and  they  were  pro- 
foundly thankful  at  having  escaped  the  famine. 

As  I  watched  the  shuttle  that  he  threw  back 
and  forth  across  the  loom,  I  remarked  upon  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  bobbins  from  which  the  thread  was 
unwound.  *'  They  look  as  if  they  were  wound  by 
machinery,"  I  said.  "And  so  they  were,"  the  spin- 
ner  replied.     "My  bobbins  come  from  America." 

247 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

Besides  the  famine-fund,  the  cotton  thread  was  the 
first  link  of  communication  between  China  and  the 
United  States  that  I  had  discovered  anywhere  in 
Shensi.  In  reply  to  my  inquiries,  the  spinner  told 
me  that  American  cotton  thread  was  better  than 
any  grown  in  Shensi,  and  could  be  bought  for  just 
about  the  same  price.  He  accounted  for  its  cheap- 
ness by  the  theory  that  the  United  States  was  an 
island  not  far  from  China.  When  I  told  him  that 
the  country  from  which  the  thread  came  was 
18,000  li  from  the  plain  of  Sian,  he  shook  his  head 
dubiously.  "  The  thread  would  cost  more,"  he  said, 
"if  it  had  to  be  brought  such  a  long  distance." 

Before  the  famine  San  Yuan  was  a  rich  town 
of  about  50,000  inhabitants.  Its  population,  when 
I  visited  it,  was  reduced  to  less  than  20,000.  On  a 
smaller  scale,  San  Yuan's  experience  of  the  three 
years'  drought  was  very  similar  to  that  of  Sian. 
From  the  country  round  about  thousands  of  men, 
women,  and  children  flocked  to  San  Yuan,  vainly 
seeking  escape  from  hunger.  They  nearly  all  died 
in  the  city  to  which  they  had  fled  for  refuge.  In 
an  embankment  against  the  outside  of  the  city- 
wall  the  dead  were  buried.  Enough  earth  was 
thrown  over  the  bodies  to  conceal  them,  but  not 
enough  to  protect  them  from  the  dogs,  who  always 
prowl  about  the  walls  of  a  Chinese  city.  In  the 
embankment  were  holes,  from  which  protruded 
skeletons  and  bits  of  clothing,  marking  the  visits 
of  the  dogs  of  San  Yuan. 

248 


AROUND    ABOUT   SIAN 

Probably  no  one  can  endure  suffering  more  pa- 
tiently than  a  Chinaman,  and  no  one  forgets  his  suf- 
fering more  persistently  when  it  is  past.  It  seems 
to  be  part  of  his  striving  for  "  Peace  "  to  put  out 
of  his  mind  the  recollection  of  anything  that  is  un- 
happy or  unpleasant.  The  inhabitants  of  San  Yuan, 
which  had  been  for  three  years  the  scene  of  an 
awful  famine,  might  be  expected  to  turn  away  from 
their  city  with  a  shudder,  and  to  abandon  it  forever, 
but,  instead,  I  found  that  nothing  seemed  farther 
from  their  thoughts  than  the  famine.  It  was  at  an 
end,  and  they  no  longer  even  cared  to  talk  about  it. 
San  Yuan  is  a  centre  of  the  cotton  trade  of  north 
China.  When  it  is  remembered  that  the  entire 
population  numbers  more  than  300,000,000,  and 
that  90  per  cent,  of  this  number  wear  cotton  clothes, 
some  idea  can  be  formed  of  the  volume  of  the 
cotton  trade  of  the  Empire.  From  San  Yuan  cara- 
vans of  camels,  laden  with  bales  of  cotton  cloth, 
start  for  Kansuh  Turkestan  and  Inner  Mongolia. 
The  failure  of  the  cotton  crop  of  Shensi  did  not 
seem  to  discourage  the  merchants  of  San  Yuan  in 
the  slightest.  They  at  once  began  filling  their 
orders  with  imported  cotton  cloth.  Their  ware- 
houses were  filled  with  bales  of  cotton  cloth  woven 
in  England  and  the  United  States. 

As  Wang  and  I  stood  one  afternoon  in  the 
road  outside  of  the  city-wall,  looking  at  the  ghastly 
embankment,  we  were  forced  to  step  aside  to  make 
way  for  a  long  line  of  camels,  that  were  swaying 

249 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

along  towards  the  south  gate.  The  camels  were 
carrying  cotton  bales.  Wang  pointed  to  them,  and 
said,  "  It  is  marked  in  the  English  language."  I 
looked,  and,  sure  enough,  the  labels  on  the  bales 
showed  that  to  old  San  Yuan,  which  probably 
not  more  than  six  white  men  had  ever  seen,  the 
camels  were  bringing  the  product  of  Fall  River, 
Massachusetts. 


250 


CHAPTER    XVII 

SOME   SHENSI   MONUMENTS 

SCATTERED  all  over  China,  by  roadsides,  in 
village  streets,  and  in  temple  court-yards  are 
granite  tablets  carved  deep  with  inscriptions. 
None  of  them  are  modern  as  the  West  reckons 
modernity.  Few  were  erected  since  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  was  signed  in  Philadelphia, 
but  some  are  much  older  than  others.  Most  of 
them  record  the  virtuous  deeds  of  mandarins,  who 
lived  and  died  during  the  last  two  dynasties,  but 
occasionally  one  meets  with  an  inscription  that  tells 
of  something  that  happened  long  ago ;  a  bit  of  phil- 
osophy suggested  by  some  incident  in  history ;  a 
memorial  of  an  illustrious  Emperor,  or  sometimes  an 
inscription  on  a  spot  made  famous  by  a  great  event, 
like  a  battle  or  the  birth  of  a  sage.  Stone  tablets 
are  an  institution  peculiar  to  China.  Much  of  the 
so-called  ancestor-worship  is  really  only  a  resort  to 
this  national  method  of  raising  an  enduring  monu- 
ment to  previous  generations. 

In  the  carvings  on  the  grey  stone,  far  more  than 
in  the  ponderous  and  stilted  literature  the  soul  of 
the  Chinese  speaks.  Besides  recording  events  for 
public   interest,  the  tablets  often  serve  as  reposi- 

251 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

tories  of  the  best  thoughts  of  individuals.  When 
to  one  of  the  old  yellow  race,  whom  we  like  to  car- 
toon, there  comes  a  great  thought  he  weighs  and 
measures  it.  If  it  stands  the  test  of  his  reflection,  he 
treasures  it  silently  for  years,  perhaps  forever.  He 
regards  it  as  an  illumination  of  his  soul  by  a  higher 
power.  It  becomes  his  ambition  to  transmit  to 
those  who  shall  follow  after  him  the  one  great  idea 
that  has  flashed  across  his  life.  On  a  stone  by  a 
roadside,  he  has  his  soul's  light  carved  where  men 
may  see  it.  Usually  it  finds  expression  in  an  epi- 
gram or  a  verse  of  poetry,  but  occasionally  it  is 
pictured  in  the  carving  of  a  flower  or  the  outlines 
of  a  face. 

To  me  the  tablets  of  Shensi  always  possessed 
a  strange  charm.  They  seemed  a  part  of  those 
strong,  deep  repressed  fires  that,  underneath  the 
mask  of  national  stoicism,  have  smouldered  at  the 
foundation  of  the  Chinese  nature  since  time  began, 
and  which  may  some  day  flash  forth  with  a  con- 
centrated brilliancy  that  will  startle  the  world.  Of 
some  of  the  tablets  it  is  possible  to  obtain  impres- 
sions made  in  lampblack  on  sheets  of  tissue  paper. 
These  are  sold  by  priests  to  pilgrims,  who  hang 
them  on  the  walls  of  their  homes.  A  few  of  these 
tablet-impressions  I  purchased  at  different  places 
on  my  journey  through  Shensi. 

The  Emperor  Hung  Wu,  who  in  1368 
founded  the  Ming  dynasty,  saw  in  a  dream  the 
sacred  mountain  of  Hua.     Later  he  visited  it  and 

252 


Tin-:    DKHAM    OF     IILWC     \\  L" 


SOME    SHENSI    MONUMENTS 

found  the  way  to  the  summit,  to  be  the  same  that 
had  appeared  to  him  in  his  sleep.  Hung  Wu's  was 
one  of  the  most  strenuous  lives  in  Chinese  history. 
He  overturned  the  dynasty  that  Kublai  Khan  had 
founded  and  he  broke  the  power  of  the  Mongols. 
His  armies  subdued  Corea  and  Burmah.  He  was 
a  warrior  and  a  man  of  action,  yet  he  always  re- 
garded his  dream  as  the  illumination  of  his  life. 
The  picture  of  the  sacred  mountain,  as  it  was  indeli- 
bly stamped  on  Hung  Wu's  memory,  was  carved 
on  a  stone  tablet  in  the  yard  of  the  temple  at  the 
base  of  the  mountain.  The  white  dotted  line  is  the 
winding,  difficult  trail  up  the  mountain-side.  The 
figure  of  a  man  in  the  various  stages  of  the  ascent  is 
Hung  Wu  in  the  garb  of  an  ordinary  pilgrim.  The 
white  spots  represent  the  course  of  the  rabbit 
which  was  the  Emperor's  guide  in  his  dream-pil- 
grimage. Around  the  picture  is  carved  his  de- 
scription of  his  experience  in  his  own  words. 

"  How  sublime  the  height  of  the  Western  mountain. 

I  once  dreamed  that  I  was  there. 

When  I  was  still  distafit  aboiit  a  hundred  li,  sud- 
denly the  mountain-top  appeared  to  burst  its  covering  of 
clouds  and  to  pierce  the  heavens. 

It  glittered  with  all  the  five  colours. 

In  a  ino7?ient,  I  knoiv  not  how,  I  found  my  way  to  the 
summit,  whence  I  looked  dozvn  on  a  sea  of  peaks  clothed 
with  green  pines  and  rugged  rocks. 

For  a  moment  I  lost  the  trail  of  the  white  rabbit  {that 
was  leading  vte),  but  a  pair  of  white  doves  came  doivn  to 
meet  me. 

253 


THROUGH    HIDDEN   SHENSI 

/  zms  making  the  circuit  praying  aloud  when  some  one 
knelt  before  me  and  said: 

*  Be  reverent,  for  Shang  Ti  {the  Supreme  God)  is  near 
you.' 

I  heard  and  bowed  fny  head  in  worships 

On  another  tablet  in  the  same  old  temple-yard 
at  Hua  ih  is  a  copy  of  the  character  meaning  Hap- 
piness, which  was  made  several  hundred  years  ago, 
by  a  flourish  of  the  brush  of  a  Chinese  general 
named  Sieh.  The  Chinese  idea  of  flourishes  and 
curves  differs  greatly  from  ours.  Scholars  and 
thoughtful  men  have  a  curious  habit  in  a  moment 
of  introspection  of  making  idealised  characters  with 
a  marking-brush.  The  mood  of  a  Chinese  at  such 
a  time  is  far  different  from  that  of  an  American 
school-boy  attempting  to  write  his  name  in  flour- 
ishes. The  man  with  the  ink-tablet  and  the  mark- 
ing-brush is  trying  to  interpret  his  soul.  He  selects 
at  random  any  well-known  character  of  the  alpha- 
bet and  then  allows  his  brush  to  swing  in  curves 
over  the  paper,  trying,  as  far  as  possible,  to  keep  his 
own  personality  out  of  his  writing.  I  have  seen  a 
Chinaman  sit  silently  for  hours  in  a  moment  of 
illumination,  while  his  brush  wanders  dreamily  over 
the  piece  of  brown  paper  before  him.  Only  very 
rarely,  sometimes  not  more  than  once  or  twice  in 
his  lifetime,  does  he  succeed  in  making  a  character 
in  which  he  sees  his  soul  reflected.  This  can  hap- 
pen only  when  the  ego  is  completely  eliminated  and 
it  is  his  soul  and  not  himself  that  makes  the  flour- 

254 


THE    HAPPINESS   OF   SIEH. 


SOME    SHENSI    MONUMENTS 

ish.  Such  a  character  is  on  the  tablet  of  Sieh. 
Care  has  been  taken  in  the  carving  to  preserve  the 
hair-brush  marks  of  the  original.  A  friend  of 
Sieh's  named  Hew  Kwo  Tung  was  delighted  with 
the  character.  An  inscription  in  one  corner  of  the 
tablet  says, 

"  General  Sieh,  in  a  joyous  mood,  wrote  this  word, 
happiness,  giving  it  so  much  expression  that  I  have  thought 
Jit  to  have  it  cut  on  stone  to  afford  pleasure  to  others, — 
Hew  Kwo  Tungy 

Another  conception  of  the  word  happiness  is 
a  monogram  on  a  tablet  erected  by  a  man  named 
Chen  Toun.  The  monogram  consists  of  the  char- 
acter for  mouth  with  a  field  to  supply  wants  and  a 
third  character  signifying  divine  protection. 

In  a  park  in  the  southeastern  corner  of  Sian 
is  a  row  of  long,  one-story,  brick  sheds.  These 
comprise  what  ts  known  as  The  Hall  of  Tablets, 
famous  all  over  China  as  the  oldest  collection  of 
stone  memorials  of  the  past.  The  Hall  was  re- 
built and  the  tablets  placed  in  their  present  posi- 
tions during  the  Han  dynasty  about  ico  B.C.,  but 
some  of  the  granite  slabs  stood  in  a  previous  col- 
lection in  Sian  long  before  that  time.  Like  many 
other  things  in  Shensi,  the  beginnings  of  the  Hall 
of  Tablets  belong  to  the  period  of  legends  and  not 
to  history.  The  sheds  are  about  six  in  number  and 
each  is  about  500  feet  long.  Side  by  side  in  rows, 
with  only  sufficient  space  for  a  man  to  walk  be- 

255 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

tween  them,  are  tablets  of  every  sort,  shape,  and 
description.  Here  are  kept  the  memorials  of  the 
rulers  and  kings  and  sages  and  emperors  of  China 
from  Fuhi  to  the  Tangs.  It  was  the  Hall  of 
Tablets  in  Sian  that  gave  the  suggestion  for  the 
"Hall  of  the  Mings"  in  Pekin.  But  the  monu- 
ments in  the  Sian  Hall  are  not  confined  to  memo- 
rials of  men.  It  contains  thousands  of  tablets  of 
all  kinds  that  are  entitled  to  a  place  in  the  long 
aisles  because  of  their  especial  merit  or  interest,  in 
somewhat  the  same  way  that  exceptionally  fine 
paintings  might  be  selected  for  a  national  art 
gallery. 

In  order  to  obtain  admission  to  the  Sian  Hall, 
the  carvings  on  a  tablet  must  be  well  executed 
and  the  calligraphy  of  the  inscription  must  be  per- 
fect. Chief  of  its  treasures  in  Chinese  eyes  are 
the  original  thirteen  classics  of  Confucius.  They 
once  formed  the  imperishable  library  of  the  Kuo 
Tze  Chien,  the  oldest  university  in  the  world, 
which  still  exists  in  a  decadent  form.  "  It  was  in 
its  glory  before  the  light  of  science  dawned  on 
Greece  and  when  Pythagoras  and'  Plato  were 
pumping  their  secrets  from  the  priests  of  Heliopo- 
lis."  *  When  in  the  course  of  centuries  all  of 
Chinese  learning  and  literature  came  to  centre 
about  the  writings  of  Confucius,  a  monument  to 
the  great  sage  as  a  basis  for  a  university  library 
was   carved    in  stone   and  set  up   in  the   Hall  of 

*  The  Lore  of  Cathay,  by  Dr.  W.  A.  P.  Martin,  page  371. 
256 


SOME    SHENSI    MONUMENTS 

Tablets  in  Sian.  Once  before  in  the  reign  of 
Chung  the  wall  builder,  all  the  Confucian  books 
that  the  Government  could  seize  had  been  destroyed, 
and,  largely  to  prevent  the  recurrence  of  such  a 
calamitv,  stone  was  selected  as  the  material  in  which 
to  preserve  the  greatest  treasure  of  the  library.  As 
the  Kuo  Tze  Chien  is  under  the  patronage  of  the 
Emperor,  it  was  transferred  to  Pekin  when  that 
city  became  the  capital,  and,  in  imitation  of  the 
stone  library  of  Sian,  the  thirteen  classics  were  in- 
scribed on  stone  columns  in  front  of  the  present 
university  buildings. 

Anyone  possessed  of  an  adequate  knowledge 
of  the  Chinese  language  and  literature  could  find 
few  things  more  delightful  than  to  spend  weeks  in 
studying  the  old  gray  slabs  in  the  Sian  Hall  of 
Tablets.  On  the  afternoon  when  with  Wang  I 
visited  it,  we  secured  the  services  of  a  Budd- 
hist priest  as  guide.  A  number  of  Chinese,  evi- 
dently students  or  sight-seers,  were  scattered  along 
the  aisles  reading  the  inscriptions.  Their  deport- 
ment was  very  similar  to  that  of  a  well-behaved 
crowd  at  a  picture  exhibition  at  home.  Everyone 
spoke  in  low  tones  and  moved  about  as  quietly  as 
possible.  Even  with  my  ignorance  of  the  language 
in  which  the  inscriptions  told  their  stories,  I  readily 
understood  the  hush  that  the  tablets  inspired. 
Apart  from  their  antiquity  there  seemed  to  me  a 
cold  beauty  in  some  of  the  outlines  on  the  stones 
that  made  commonplace  comment  sound  jarring. 

257 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

From  a  man  whose  trade  it  was  to  make  rub- 
bings of  the  inscriptions,  I  bought  reproductions  of 
a  few  tablets  that  especially  attracted  me  as  I  passed 
them.  A  large  oblong  tablet  was  covered  for 
the  most  part  by  a  series  of  ponderous  proverbs 
like 

Truth  is  not  confined  to  speech^  but  the  use  of 
speech  is  to  reveal  truth,  and 

The  void  has  no  form,  but  form  reveals  the 
void. 

But  mortised  into  the  centre  of  the  slab  was 
a  panel  that  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  proverbs. 
On  the  panel  was  pictured  a  spray  of  chrysanthe- 
mums and  bamboo  branches.  In  spite  of  the  diffi- 
culty of  portraying  flower  petals  on  coarse  stone, 
the  delicacy  of  the  outline  was  so  perfect  that  no 
one  who  saw  it  could  help  an  involuntary  expres- 
sion of  the  sentiment  written  in  verse  around  the 
chrysanthemums : 

How  exact  their  resemblance, 
Their  whiteness  rivals  the  snow. 
And  you  almost  smell  their  fragrance, 

and  the  signature  of  the  engraver,  Chang  Tai  Ho 
of  Kurgi7i.  The  tablet  must  at  one  time  have 
been  quite  famous  because  several  pilgrims,  nearly 
all  of  them  mandarins,  have  recorded,  near  the  top 
of  the  stone,  their  names  and  the  fact  that  they 
had  visited  it.  A  date  on  the  tablet  shows  that  it 
was  placed   in    its  present  place   a.d.  679,  in   the 

258 


TABLET    OF    THE    CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 


SOME    SHENSI    MONUMENTS 

twenty-ninth  year  of  Kau  Tsung.  This  emperor 
was  the  husband  of  Wu  How.  When  Chang's 
chisel  carved  the  chrysanthemums,  she  was  the 
dominant  power  in  Sian  and  in  China.  It  may  be 
only  an  idle  fancy,  but  more  than  once,  as  I  have 
looked  at  the  lamp-black  impression  of  the  picture 
of  the  white  flowers  that  bloomed  twelve  centuries 
ago,  I  have  believed  that  it  was  Wu  How  herself 
who  had  the  panel  mortised  into  the  centre  of  the 
slab.  It  was  not  like  a  man — not  even  a  Chinese 
man — to  break  the  monotony  of  dreary  old  prov- 
erbs with  an  irrelevant  bouquet.  It  looks  to  me 
like  the  work  of  a  woman.  And  Wu  How,  like 
her  successor  on  the  dragon  throne  to-day,  although 
an  Empress  and  a  "  Jezebel,"  was  still  a  woman. 

Another  tablet  rubbing  in  the  Siam  Hall 
was  a  portrait  of  the  Buddhist  apostle  Tama,  who 
lived  about  two  centuries  after  the  Christian  era. 
In  accordance  with  Chinese  ideas  of  propriety, 
Tama  sits  on  his  halo  instead  of  wearing  it  around 
his  head.  The  picture  shows  him  in  an  attitude  of 
meditation,  contemplating  a  bowl  of  incense  in  his 
lap.     The  inscription  reads, 

An  original  likeness  of  the  patriarch  Tama.  It 
was  drawn  on  paper  with  a  faithful  hand,  but 
paper  and  ink  cannot  .  .  .  resist  the  tooth  of 
time.     Hence  we  have  it  ctit  on  stone. 

Fung  Ti  drew  the  portrait  of  Tama,  of 
which  this  is  a  stone  reproduction.     It  is  only  fair 

259 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

to  suppose  that  Fung  Ti  had  never  heard  of  curve 
harmony,  yet  he  succeeded  in  having  the  sweep  of 
Tama's  mantle  and  the  drapery  of  his  sleeves  in 
perfect  accord  with  the  under  lines  of  his  face. 
Neither  had  Mr.  Fung  Ti  ever  studied  impression- 
ist poster  methods  of  portraying  hair ;  and  yet 
Tama's  ringlets  are  all  a  series  of  interwoven  circles. 
The  only  object  in  Sian  that  has  to  any  con- 
siderable extent  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
Western  world  is  the  tall  granite  slab  called  the 
Nestorian  Tablet.  In  the  discussions  of  which  it 
has  been  the  subject  ever  since  its  discovery,  nearly 
three  hundred  years  ago,  such  men  as  Voltaire, 
Renan,  Abbe  Hue,  and  Legge  have  participated. 
As  a  proof  that  the  Christian  religion  is  not  new  in 
China,  but  was  introduced  into  Shensi  a.d.  635,  the 
Nestorian  tablet  has  always  been  a  very  useful  argu- 
ment for  missionaries ;  they  have  stoutly  defended 
its  authenticity  against  the  scepticism  of  some  anti- 
quaries like  Professor  Salisbury  of  Yale  College, 
who  published  an  article  in  1853  to  prove  that  the 
Nestorian  Tablet  was  a  forgery.  The  more  recent 
researches,  however,  of  Legge  and  Wylie  have 
established,  beyond  all  reasonable  doubt,  that  the 
Nestorian  Tablet  is  what  Chinese  scholars  have 
always  regarded  it,  a  truthful  record  of  the  first 
Christian  mission  in  China.  But  my  visit  to  the 
famous  tablet  convinced  me  that  very  few  of  the 
learned  missionaries  or  laymen  who  have  written 
about  it  had  ever  visited  it. 

260 


TAMA. 


SOME    SHENSI    MONUMENTS 

The  Nestorian  Tablet  was  first  mentioned 
in  the  "  History  of  the  Great  and  Renowned 
Monarchy  of  China "  by  Alvarez  Semedo,  Roman 
Catholic  procurator  of  the  provinces  of  China  and 
Japan.  He  told  of  the  discovery  of  the  monument 
by  workmen,  who  were  excavating  for  the  founda- 
tions of  a  building  in  Sian  in  1625.  Semedo  says 
that  the  Governor  of  Shensi  "  caused  it  to  be  placed 
upon  a  fair  pedestal  under  a  small  arch  sustained 
by  pillars  at  each  end  thereof."*  Abbe  Hue,  in  his 
description  of  the  Nestorian  Tablet,  says  that  he 
had  been  informed  by  Jesuit  missionaries  in  Sian 
that  a  pagoda  had  been  built  over  the  monument, 
and  Williamson,  in  "Journeys  in  North  China," 
speaks  of  the  Nestorian  Tablet  being  imbedded  in 
a  wall.  None  of  these  descriptions  give  the  slight- 
est idea  of  the  present  condition  of  the  tablet,  as  I 
saw  it,  and  as  it  can  be  seen  by  any  one  in  Sian 
who  will  take  the  trouble  to  walk  to  a  neglected 
field,  about  a  mile  beyond  the  western  gate  of  the 
city. 

At  the  back  of  the  field,  some  distance  from 
the  road,  is  a  small  dilapidated  Taoist  temple ;  in 
front  of  it  are  scattered  heaps  of  mouldy  brick  and 
broken  stone  columns,  which  may  or  may  not  be 
the  ruins  of  the  Nestorian  cathedral.  In  the  midst 
of  the  ruins  are  three  tablets,  side  by  side.  They 
are  not   protected  either  from  vandals  or  the  ele- 

*  Hsian  past  and  present,  published  by  North  China  Herald,  Shanghai, 
page  13. 

261 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

ments,  but  are  merely  mounted  on  stone  tortoises 
after  the  fashion  of  many  Chinese  tablets.  Two 
of  the  three  are  only  commonplace  memorials 
of  mandarins.  On  the  centre  tablet,  higher  than 
the  others,  a  small  Greek  cross  is  visible  near  the 
top,  and  this  is  the  Nestorian  Tablet.  Under  the 
cross  are  three  short  columns  of  Chinese  char- 
acters, which  constitute  a  heading  to  the  inscription 
that  follows.  The  heading  may  be  translated,  "The 
eulogistic  verses  on  the  stone  monument  commem- 
orating the  diffusion  of  the  illustrious  religion  in 
the  Middle  Kingdom,  with  prefatory  notices."* 
The  greater  part  of  the  inscription  that  follows  is 
in  Chinese,  but  it  also  contains  a  few  supplementary 
paragraphs  in  Syriac,  a  language  now  unknown  in 
China.  After  a  long  exposition  of  Christian  doc 
trine,  including  the  birth  of  Christ,  who  is  called 
"Ta  Tsin,"  the  inscription  says  that  during  the 
reign  of  the  Emperor  Tai  Tsung  (a.d.  627-649)  a 
man  of  the  "  highest  virtue  "  named  Olupun  came 
to  Sian  from  Syria.  He  brought  with  him  the 
"  True  Scriptures,"  which  he  expounded  to  the  Em- 
peror with  the  result  that  Tai  Tsung  issued  a  proc- 
lamation beginning,  **  Systems  have  always  the  same 
name,  sages  have  not  always  the  same  personality.'' 
The  proclamation  declared  Olupun's  "  system "  to 
be  "helpful  to  all  creatures  and  profitable  to  men." 

*  The  short  extracts  from  the  inscription  on  the  Nestorian  tablet,  that 
I  have  quoted  here  are  taken  from  Professor  Legge's  translation  contained 
in  "Christianity  in  China,"  Triibner  &  Co.,  London,  1888. 

262 


^  *- **  a  *  h  ^ -K  *  •^- it  ?■•<  jK. 't4.  ?;.  * ' 

:  ^  i  V--  ^-  ^  i  r;  -^  <!.  --  ii A     « vi  :r^  -t  4  ^  i^<  ,'.  ^  »i- •$■ 
•-i  A  £. -Ir  -ii"5^  * -^ ^1  A  ■5'  -S      f^i.-^^',  -f-^-  ff: mi]  ^■■•■i'  -i-  t  ff. 

,. - -fi  'J*^  -t-'ff  -f?  ?r  '9;-5'  t^-S-ft.  iLji "-,  •;; 

!   ■  -^««S7.-«l/l:i'':  l;  «,:$  **  ,=s  S-^til^-iij^'t.-iC  ^  ,n  K  i, 

V  ^',  :^i.■s.l.^f^±  i;  >{.^-4  B,  ,r  «p  T  gg.;^  ,a  ^,5  -s'f  a  '«■  *;  j'^  ^ 

•:-  ■■^  .V:  ■«  ?  *  :^.!'  'f-  «i  ^  v' ''^'^-^^'U  U  « -fu-- 

V4  ^  £'*.,«  ic-  .;l  ^.  >f  *r :?:  -.!?  t-  a  ^- jt  ^  f,  ^^.jjj.-^.  ^f  ,'9  i£_-^- 


f^--K-jr  /  ■. ,-  .^_  ■-, .-  ,",>;  iL^^ifs ;ii  A^x'^sy^-.?'; .«)  .»}■  t"A'■js-^-f;• 
••'  •"  «  *  /L  » i*-.^'  f^-  m  ."t  Tv  .>'2  ^f  -  ,;:  •>.;  ".'. 


;,s*jt4  ^  ff.^  ■■•   --^  -.  ;//v',  .• 


i  vlfi  ^^  g  ..  *  ,; J  -i;,  ^  :g  ^,*t  =t-ji  ^tq  :.  ^  _j,-,=. 
r  -r^  ^iii  K  ;i  <«■  -.V  fi' -j:  Tt  S  i^'-^'  r^.r,  ,f'^^ 


''!-^:ii:'^!%hf^,% 


^  -:■. ^^  J-.  «•  t  t  ii  <•  I;- 
.*  'fro--  vri^t^  .-i  ?c  ^r^ 


THE    NESTORTAN    TABLET. 


SOME   SHENSI    MONUMENTS 

According  to  the  tablet,  the  succeeding  reign 
of  Kao  Tsung  was  a  period  of  great  prosperity 
for  Christianity  in  China,  and  one  would  almost 
infer  from  reading  the  inscription  that  the  Emperor 
himself  was  a  convert  to  it.  "  He  caused  monas- 
teries of  the  illustrious  religion  to  be  erected  in 
every  one  of  the  Prefectures."  The  persecutions  of 
Wu  How  are  tactfully  passed  over  in  the  inscrip- 
tion with  the  statement  that  the  "  Buddhists,  taking 
advantage  of  their  strength,  made  their  voices  heard," 
and  "some  inferior  officers  greatly  derided  the 
Nestorians,  slandering  them  and  speaking  against 
them."  During  the  succeeding  reigns  of  the  eighth 
century,  the  new  religion  made  such  headway,  so 
the  inscription  narrates,  that  a  large  part  of  the 
population  of  Shensi  must  have  become  Christian. 
The  inscription  concludes  with  a  fulsome  eulogy 
of  the  reigning  Emperor  Chien  Chung  (780-783), 
and  one  of  his  ministers  named  I-sze,  who  was 
originally  a  Buddhist  priest  from  India,  but  who 
apparently  had  been  converted  to  Christianity. 

Chinese  antiquaries  hold  the  Nestorian  Tablet 
in  great  veneration  as  an  historical  curiosity,  and  rub- 
bings of  the  main  part  of  the  inscription  are  easily 
obtainable  in  Sian,  but  impressions  of  the  top  of  the 
monument  containing  a  picture  of  the  cross  are  not 
for  sale  anywhere.  I  had  to  hire  a  man  to  make 
the  rubbing  that  is  reproduced  on  the  opposite 
page.  I  also  obtained  an  impression  of  a  little  in- 
scription on  the  side  of  the  tablet  which,  so  far  as  I 

263 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

have  been  able  to  discover,  has  escaped  the  atten- 
tion of  all  of  the  eminent  commentators  on  the 
monument.  Dr.  Martin  has  translated  this  supple- 
mentary inscription  for  me,  as  follows:  "In  the 
reign  of  Hien  Fung,  1079  years  after  the  erection 
of  this  monument,  it  was  visited  by  Han  Tai  Hua, 
of  WuHn,  who  caused  the  pavilion  to  be  rebuilt.  I 
grieve  that  my  deceased  friend,  Governor  Woo, 
could  not  be  with  me  on  this  occasion."  Hein 
Fung  was  an  emperor  of  the  present  dynasty,  who 
reigned  from  1851  to  1862.  The  inscription  may 
mean  that  during  this  period  the  tablet  stood  in  a 
pavilion,  in  the  wall  of  which  Williamson  saw  it 
when  he  visited  Sian  in  1866,  and,  furthermore,  that 
Han  Tai  Hua's  pavilion  was  the  successor  of  the 
former  one  referred  to  in  earlier  descriptions  of  the 
tablet. 

The  most  common  criticism  of  the  Nestorian 
Tablet  by  men  sceptical  of  its  authenticity  is  the 
question,  What  became  of  the  Nestorians?  The 
sudden  disappearance  of  their  converts,  their  3,000 
priests  and  their  monasteries,  caused  hardly  a  ripple 
in  the  stream  of  Chinese  history.  An  edict  issued 
in  841  by  the  Emperor  Wu  Tsung  explains  why 
they  disappeared.  Wu  Tsung  was  a  fanatical 
Taoist,  who  persecuted  Buddhists  and  Nestorians 
alike.  "As  to  the  religions  of  foreign  nations," 
says  his  edict,  "let  the  men  who  teach  them,  as 
well  as  those  of  Ta  Tsin  ...  be  required 
to  resume  the  ways  of  ordinary  life  and  their  un- 

264 


THE    CROSS    THAT    SURN'IX'KD. 


oOME    SHENSI    MONUMENTS 

substantial  talkings  no  more  be  heard."  The  fate 
of  the  Nestorians  does  not  seem  to  me  to  be  a  mat- 
ter difficult  of  conjecture.  Like  every  other  for- 
eign-born influence  that  has  been  left  to  itself  to 
battle  with  the  traditional  conservatism  of  Shensi, 
the  Christianity  of  the  eighth  century  was  simply 
dissolved  in  its  environment  as  easily  as  the  waters 
of  a  spring  might  lose  themselves  in  the  sands  of 
the  desert.  When  placed  under  the  ban  by  the 
Government,  Nestorians  became  Chinese  again, 
and  the  "  illustrious  religion  "  was  lost  in  the  civili- 
sation of  the  Sons  of  Han. 

But  the  cross  on  the  stone  survived. 


265 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THROUGH  THE  TSINGLINGS 

IT  was  in  the  last  week  of  November  that  Mr. 
Duncan  and  I  began  our  journey  from  Sian 
back  to  "civilisation."  The  climate  at  that  season, 
in  North  China,  was  too  cold  to  permit  of  our  return 
over  the  route  by  which  I  had  come.  The  only  way 
possible  was  down  the  Han  River  to  Hankow, 
nearly  six  hundred  miles  to  the  southward.  From 
the  leader  of  a  caravan  we  learned  that  the  Han 
was  then  navigable  from  Lung  Ku  Chai,  a  town 
only  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  distant,  but 
reached  by  a  mountain-trail  so  difficult  that  seven 
days  were  considered  necessary  for  the  journey  on 
the  back  of  a  Chinese  pony.  Business  that  de- 
manded my  attention  in  Shanghai  made  a  speedy 
return  to  the  coast  necessary  for  me,  but  several  days 
more  were  necessary  for  the  completion  of  Mr. 
Duncan's  work  in  Sian,  We  therefore  decided  to 
attempt  the  seven  days'  ride  in  five.  I  knew  that 
it  meant  some  desperate  travelling,  but  there  was 
no  help  for  it,  and  we  made  our  preparations  accord- 
ingly. 

We    secured    from    the    Shen    mandarin    an 
escort  of  six  soldiers,  mounted  on  ponies  that  were 

266 


/^      vS 


#w* 


TIIIl  nestorian  taulet. 


HAPPIXESS    WITH    DIVINE    PROTECTION. 


THROUGH    THE    TSINGLINGS 

supposed  to  be  possessed  of  exceptional  endurance 
and  strength.  Two  days  before  our  departure  from 
Sian,  Wang  started  with  our  luggage  on  three 
mules  for  Lung  Ku  Chai,  with  orders  to  wait  there 
for  our  arrival.  We  carried  with  us,  in  our  pookas, 
only  two  cans  of  beef,  a  few  cans  of  condensed 
milk,  and  three  bars  of  chocolate.  It  was  out  of 
the  question  to  divide  the  journey  to  Lung  Ku 
Chai  into  systematic  stages  in  the  short  time  we 
had  allowed  to  accomplish  it,  and  we  were  prepared 
not  to  depend  upon  kung  kwans  for  shelter,  but  to 
ride  as  far  as  we  could  every  day,  staying  at  the  inn 
of  the  village,  which  we  happened  to  reach  at  sun- 
down. In  our  party  was  a  Chinese  scholar  of  Sian, 
who  had  been  appointed  by  the  governor  of  Shensi 
to  go  to  Shanghai  to  study  foreign  methods  of  edu- 
cation. The  mandarin  of  the  palace  called  on  me 
the  evening  before  we  left,  to  say  good-bye. 
"  Some  day,"  he  said,  "  I  may  visit  the  barbarian 
countries,  and  if  I  do,  I  shall  try  to  see  you."  I  am 
sure  that  he  thought  that  all  the  countries  of  the 
world,  outside  of  China,  combined,  amounted  to  less 
than  the  province  of  Shensi,  but  for  all  that  he  was 
a  very  good  friend,  and  I  sincerely  hope  that  his 
head  is  still  on  his  shoulders. 

A  cold  north  wind  was  whirling  the  dirt  of  Sian 
streets  into  dust  eddies  on  the  morning  when  we 
climbed  on  our  ponies  in  front  of  the  "American 
kung  kwan  "  and  clattered  over  the  stone  pavements 
through  the  south  gate.     Across  the  plain  to  the 

267 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSl 

southeast,  stretched  the  white  road  ending  near 
the  horizon  edge  in  the  high,  blue  mountains  of  the 
Tsingling  range,  which  forms  the  southern  boundary 
of  the  plain  of  Sian.  The  higher  peaks  were  cov- 
ered with  snow,  and  flashed  in  the  sunlight  of  the 
morning. 

The  Tsinglings  are  the  water-shed  of  China. 
Near  their  crest  was  one  of  the  sources  of  the 
Han  River,  whose  windings  we  were  to  follow  to 
the  Yang  tse  and  to  the  sea.  About  half  a  mile 
beyond  the  gate  of  Sian  we  found  a  troop  of 
cavalry  drawn  up  by  the  side  of  the  road  awaiting 
us.  Their  leader  was  an  elderly  man  whose  rank  as 
a  military  mandarin  was  indicated  by  his  red  button 
and  horse-tail  cockade.  As  we  approached,  the 
soldiers  dismounted  and,  standing  at  their  ponies' 
heads,  made  a  salute  by  dropping  on  one  knee. 
The  mandarin  prostrated  himself  in  the  dust  and 
then,  rising,  took  hold  of  Mr.  Duncan's  stirrup.  He 
said  that  he  had  been  sent  by  the  Governor,  Li 
Shao  Fen  to  carry  his  farewell  to  his  "  friend,"  the 
"  missionary  of  Sian,"  who  had  done  much  for 
Shensi  and  who  had  laboured  to  feed  its  starving 
people.  By  the  side  of  the  road,  about  an  hour 
after  leaving  Sian,  we  passed  a  little  temple  that 
was  in  nowise  different  from  thousands  of  other 
little  places  of  worship  in  Shensi.  An  inscription 
over  the  entrance  said:  "On  this  spot  the  great 
Fuhi  was  born."  From  the  indifferent  way  in 
which  a  soldier  pointed  it  out  to  me  it  was  hard 

268 


THROUGH    THE   TSINGLINGS 

to  realise  that  Fuhi  was  less  recent  than  Washing- 
ton. 

By  nightfall  we  had  reached  the  little  town  of 
Lan  tien,  at  the  base  of  the  mountains.  At  the  inn 
where  we  spent  the  night  we  were  visited  by  two 
mandarins.  One  was  the  magistrate  of  the  town 
and  the  other  came  from  another  district  some  ten 
miles  away.  A  few  days  before,  an  Imperial  edict 
had  been  promulgated  at  Sian  ordering  all  the  man- 
darins of  the  province  to  introduce  "  New  Learn- 
ing "  into  the  curriculum  of  the  schools  under  their 
jurisdiction.  New  Learning  is  the  general  term 
employed  in  China  to  denote  the  systems  of  educa- 
tion of  Europe  and  America,  including  a  study  of 
geography  and  the  history  of  nations  other  than 
China.  New  Learning  has  for  several  years  been  a 
bone  of  contention  between  the  liberal  and  anti- 
foreign  factions  in  the  government,  and  until  re- 
cently it  met  with  the  strong  opposition  of  the 
Empress  Dowager.  But  either  as  a  means  of 
conciliating  the  missionaries  and  foreign  ministers, 
or  because  recent  happenings  had  convinced  her  of 
the  need  of  a  change  in  educational  methods  she 
had  allowed  this  remarkable  edict  to  emanate  from 
her  sedan-chair  on  the  homeward  journey. 

The  edict  caused  almost  a  panic  among  Shensi 
mandarins,  who  to  a  man  were  opposed  to  New 
Learning  in  every  form.  The  object  of  the  visit  of 
the  two  mandarins  at  Lan  tien  was  to  consult  with 
Mr.  Duncan  as  to  the  best  way  of  introducing  New 

269 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

Learning  as  speedily  as  possible.  It  was  their 
evident  belief  that  the  little  good  in  any  especial 
knowledge  that  barbarians  possessed  could  be  ac- 
quired by  a  Chinaman  within  a  few  weeks.  They 
asked  where  they  could  obtain  text-books  for  the 
use  of  children  in  the  schools.  Mr.  Duncan  offered 
to  send  to  the  two  mandarins  several  copies  of 
different  Chinese  school  geographies  and  histories, 
from  which  they  could  make  a  selection.  This 
offer  they  politely  declined.  "  Oh,  no,"  said  one  of 
our  visitors,  "  we  read  only  books  in  Wen  li  (the 
official  dialect),  and  anything  written  by  foreigners 
would  contain  so  many  errors  of  language  that  it 
would  be  really  distasteful  to  us ;  besides,  no  books 
of  New  Learning  could  teach  us  anything.  Our 
Emperor  has  directed  that  some  forms  of  foreign 
knowledge  shall  be  taught  in  the  schools,  and  we 
must  obey  his  command,  but  as  mandarins  and 
gentlemen  we  wish  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  it." 
The  conversation  of  the  two  mandarins  at  Lan 
tien  is  an  excellent  example  of  the  spirit  in  which 
the  much-talked-of  "  educational  awakening  "  is  re- 
ceived in  the  interior  of  the  Middle  Kingdom. 

The  approach  to  the  Tsinglings  gives  no  indi- 
cation of  their  difficulties.  The  plain,  as  level  as  a 
table,  extends  in  unbroken  monotony  to  the  base  of 
the  mountains.  Without  any  preliminary  rise  of 
ground,  the  rut-worn  road  narrows  into  a  path  only 
wide  enough  for  a  pony  or  mule,  and  then  suddenly 
takes  a  sharp  turn  upward.     The  transition  from  a 

270 


THROUGH   THE   TSINGLINGS 

level  to  the  ascent  is  so  abrupt  that  one  is  almost 
unprepared  for  the  lurch  backward  in  the  saddle 
that  he  receives  as  his  pony  begins  to  climb.  After 
about  fifteen  minutes  our  ponies  began  to  lather 
and  to  pant  painfully.  As  we  reached  an  excep- 
tionally steep  quarter  of  a  mile  the  shijang  dis- 
mounted and  cutting  his  pony  sharply  with  the 
whip,  seized  him  firmly  by  the  tail.  The  rest  of  the 
party  followed  the  shijang's  example,  and  in  single 
file  we  were  dragged  up  the  mountain-side.  This 
manoeuvre  was  repeated  many  times  a  day  during 
our  journey  through  the  mountains.  In  fact,  a  pas- 
sage through  the  Tsinglings  might  be  described  as 
China  seen  from  a  pony's  tail. 

A  certain  amount  of  judgment  and  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  methods  of  ponies  is  necessary,  how- 
ever, for  this  method  of  travel.  A  horse  in 
China  has  a  happy  faculty  of  kicking  on  very 
slight  provocation.  It  is  safe  to  take  hold  of  his 
tail  only  when  the  road  is  so  steep  and  rocky 
that  were  he  to  lift  his  hind  legs  from  the  ground 
long  enough  for  a  kick  he  would  fall  over  a  preci- 
pice or  slip  backward.  The  pony  realises  the  dan- 
ger of  his  position  quite  as  well  as  the  man  he  is 
pulling  up  the  mountain-side ;  he  makes  no  protest 
until  level  ground  is  reached,  when  he  invariably 
kicks  vigorously.  When  a  line  of  travellers  is  toil- 
ing upward  in  single  file,  each  man  looks  anxiously 
around  his  pony's  flanks,  at  the  shijang,  who  is  in 
the  lead.     As  he  approaches  a  temporary  respite  in 

271 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

the  climb,  he  gives  a  sharp  "  Hi"  and  lets  go  of  his 
pony's  tail.  Instantly  all  the  rest  follow  his  example, 
at  the  same  time  stepping  well  away  from  the  hoofs 
in  front  of  them.  One  by  one,  as  the  ponies  reach 
the  level,  they  kick  and  rear  and  plunge;  then  they 
settle  down  again  and  are  ready  for  the  next  climb. 

On  the  summit  of  the  first  mountain  we  paused 
to  take  a  last  look  at  the  plain.  It  lay  spread  out 
below  us  like  a  huge  map,  seamed  with  white  roads 
and  dotted  with  mud  villages.  Across  it,  to  the 
northward,  twisted  the  old  Wei  Ho  on  its  way  to 
join  the  Yellow  River  at  Tung  Kwan.  Far  away 
to  the  northwest  the  gray  walls  and  towns  of  Sian 
were  ruggedly  outlined  against  the  intense  blue  of 
the  Shensi  sky.  Steep  and  rugged  as  was  the  trail 
which  we  were  following,  men  had  come  and  gone 
over  it  since  Fuhi  took  his  first  toddling  steps  on 
that  loess  plain  five  thousand  years  ago.  Hundreds 
of  generations  had  looked  on  that  land  at  the  base 
of  the  Tsinglings.  But  they  were  nearly  all  chil- 
dren of  the  Yellow  race,  all  "  Sons  of  Han."  To 
the  West  it  was  still  a  hidden  country. 

The  dense  population  of  China  is  left  behind 
when  one  plunges  into  the  mountains  of  South 
Shensi.  The  one  trail  passes  through  a  wilder- 
ness in  which  the  signs  of  human  habitation  grow 
fewer  and  fewer  the  farther  one  advances  into 
it.  After  leaving  Lan  tien,  there  are  no  villages, 
and  between  the  isolated  caravan  towns  are  only 
a  few  scattered  farm-houses.     These,  too,  disappear 

272 


THROUGH    THE   TSINGLINGS 

after  the  second  day  of  the  journey,  and  for  hours 
the  traveller  rides  and  climbs  and  slips  through  soli- 
tudes as  unbroken  as  in  the  most  newly  discovered 
country  of  the  world.  In  the  loneliness  of  the 
mountain  defiles  it  is  really  a  relief  to  hear  the 
distant  tinkle  of  the  bell  of  an  approaching  caravan. 
It  is  almost  the  only  sound  that  breaks  the  stillness 
of  the  Tsinglings.  The  wilderness  is  treeless.  The 
mountain-sides  are  covered  with  coarse  underbrush 
and  grass.  There  are  no  whispering  pines  and  no 
singing  birds.  The  only  winged  things  are  a  few 
flocks  of  crows.  As  far  as  the  crest  of  the  range 
there  are  no  streams  of  any  size,  and  the  sameness 
of  the  mountains  prevents  in  this  part  of  them  any 
beauty  of  landscape. 

A  number  of  men  on  foot  are  to  be  met 
with  in  the  trails.  Hanging  from  sticks  across 
their  shoulders,  are  baskets  of  merchandise  that 
they  carry  hundreds  of  miles  from  the  Yang  tse 
into  Shensi.  Occasionally,  too,  one  encounters 
processions  of  lumber-carriers.  The  round,  un- 
hewn timbers  are  strapped  together  in  the  form 
of  a  letter  A ;  through  the  apex  the  carrier  sticks 
his  head  and  then  struggles  with  his  load  up  the 
mountain-side.  In  the  fastnesses  are  several  bands 
of  robbers.  Some  of  them  are  political  criminals 
who  have  been  outlawed,  and  to  whom  brigandage 
is  the  only  possible  means  of  earning  a  livelihood. 
Because  of  the  robbers,  travellers  on  foot  never  go 
through  the  mountains  alone,  but  always  in  groups 

273 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

for  mutual  protection.  Even  mule  caravans  never 
travel  at  night,  and  two  or  three  of  the  muleteers 
are  always  armed  with  broadswords.  Shen  towns 
in  the  Tsinglings  are  dreary  little  clusters  of  houses 
along  the  trail.  The  two  or  three  hundred  inhabi- 
tants earn  a  livelihood  by  giving  shelter  and  food 
to  passing  caravans. 

The  most  important  building  in  every  town 
is  the  inn.  It  is  always  large  and  noisy  and  dirty. 
A  peculiarity  of  Chinese  muleteers  is  their  ability 
to  get  along  with  very  little  sleep.  After  their 
evening  meal  they  gather  about  a  candle  in  one 
of  the  rooms  of  the  inn,  where  they  play  dominoes 
and  gamble  for  cash  until  long  after  midnight. 
When  the  caravan  starts  at  daybreak  few  of  the 
drivers  have  had  more  than  four  hours  sleep,  yet 
they  are  always  cheerful  and  talkative,  and  ready 
for  another  twelve  hours  of  clambering  and  mule- 
beating.  As  we  were  making  a  dash  through  the 
mountains  it  was  necessary  for  us  to  leave  the  inn 
every  day  an  hour  before  sunrise.  Our  horses 
would  be  saddled  and  brought  into  the  road  in 
front  of  the  gate,  and  we  would  issue  from  our 
rooms  as  noiselessly  as  possible,  stepping  over  the 
prostrate  bodies  of  drivers  sleeping  beside  their 
mules  on  the  hard  ground  of  the  court-yard. 

Our  noon  meal  was  usually  eaten  near  some 
farm-house.  From  the  farmer  we  could  buy  a  little 
rice  and  a  few  eggs,  and  from  his  well  we  could 
obtain  enough  water  to  make  three  cups  of  choco- 

274 


THROUGH    THE   TSINGLINGS 

late.  Tired  and  faint  as  we  often  were  after  seven 
or  eight  hours'  climbing  and  riding,  we  never  dared 
to  linger  long  over  our  food  in  the  middle  of  the 
day  for  fear  of  a  stiffness  in  our  joints  that  would 
prevent  our  covering  an  equal  distance  in  the  after- 
noon. Inns  and  brick  beds  soon  lost  all  their 
horrors.  The  most  delightful  sight  of  the  day  was 
the  group  of  dirty  houses  where  we  were  to  find 
shelter  for  the  night.  After  two  cups  of  tea,  a 
bowl  of  rice,  or  some  canned  beef,  we  would  crawl 
into  our  sheepskins  and  sleep  as  only  exhausted 
barbarians  can,  until  we  felt  the  touch  of  the  shi- 
jang's  awakening  hand  in  the  morning.  We  always 
started  by  the  light  of  the  stars,  and  very  beautiful  it 
was  to  see  them,  one  by  one,  flicker  out  as  the  rays 
of  the  sun  shot  up  from  behind  some  mountain- 
top. 

There  are  a  few  jaguars  in  the  mountains,  and 
some  wolves  of  whose  depredations  great  stories  are 
told.  Shensi  inn-keepers,  after  the  fashion  of  their 
guild  the  world  over,  take  great  delight  in  telling 
their  patrons  of  marvellous  happenings  in  the  coun- 
try where  their  inns  happen  to  be.  In  such  con- 
versations, wolves  are  a  favourite  subject.  I  have 
listened  to  accounts  of  how  wolves  entered  villages 
and  carried  away  children,  of  how  they  attacked 
caravans,  and  of  how  they  prowled  around  temples 
and  hid  behind  idols  in  a  search  for  unwary  pil- 
grims, but  I  never  yet  heard  of  a  wolf  seeking  his 
prey  in  an  inn.     Inn-keepers  never  laid  the  scene  of 

275 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

their  stories  in  one  of  their  own  taverns.  Bold  and 
bad  as  Shensi  wolves  may  be,  they  are  sensible 
enough  to  avoid  entering  one  of  the  awful  inns  of 
the  country. 

I  never  met  any  wild  wolves  in  the  Tsing- 
lings,  but  the  curious  dogs  about  the  farm-houses 
always  looked  to  me  like  wolves  that  had  been 
tamed.  As  you  ride  up  to  a  mountain  farm- 
house, three  or  four  animals,  that  seem  for  ail 
the  world  like  American  prairie  wolves,  come  run- 
ning out  to  meet  you.  Their  colour  is  a  brownish 
gray.  They  have  pointed  noses  and  bushy  tails. 
They  look  genuine  and  ferocious,  and  you  wonder 
whether  their  hunger  can  be  stayed  with  a  can  of 
corned-beef  while  you  make  a  hurried  dash  for  life, 
but  as  you  dismount  and  make  their  acquaintance, 
you  find  that  their  manners  are  not  at  all  wolfish, 
but  that  they  are  just  simple,  kindly  dogs  who  rub 
up  against  your  legs  and  who  do  not  share  their 
master's  prejudice  against  foreigners. 

On  the  morning  of  the  third  day  we  came  up- 
on a  little  temple  by  the  roadside ;  over  its  arched 
entrance  were  carved  the  words,  "Here  the  waters 
divide."  By  the  temple  side  was  a  spring,  from 
which  a  tiny  stream  trickled  down  the  side  of  the 
mountain.  This  was  one  of  the  sources  of  the  Han, 
one  of  the  great  rivers  of  China.  We  had  reached 
the  water-shed.  On  one  side  of  the  temple  all  the 
streams  flowed  northward  toward  the  Yellow  River. 
From  the  other  side  their  direction  was  south  to  the 

276 


THROUGH    THE   TSINGLINGS 

Yang  tse.  From  where  our  horses  stood  by  the 
temple  arch,  we  could  watch  the  windings  of  the 
water  from  the  spring.  Near  the  base  of  the  moun- 
tain, the  stream  was  joined  by  two  other  brooks, 
and  began  its  course  as  a  full-fledged  river  through 
a  gorge.  All  the  rest  of  the  way  through  the 
mountains,  the  trail  followed  the  windings  of  the 
river.  Sometimes  we  rode  for  miles  on  a  gravelly 
bottom  that  the  current  had  covered  in  high  water. 
Often  we  crossed  it,  and  occasionally  we  rode  along 
a  narrow  shelf  on  the  sides  of  the  gorge  hundreds 
of  feet  above  the  stream. 

As  we  got  farther  into  the  gorges,  the  scenery 
became  more  beautiful.  To  the  Chinese,  a  great 
river  is  a  thing  sacred,  and  is  to  a  certain  extent  an 
object  of  worship.  On  the  wildest  and  most  in- 
accessible promontories  of  the  Han  were  little  shrines 
and  temples.  At  times  from  some  precipice  we 
could  look  down  on  a  tiny  waterfall  or  a  rapid  where 
the  stream  was  churned  white  with  foam.  The  sides 
of  the  gorges  were  bare  rock  that  seemed  to  have 
been  split  by  some  convulsion  of  nature.  Along 
their  sides  the  trail  had  apparently  been  partially 
chiselled  out  of  the  rock  and  then  had  been  widened 
by  a  wall  of  stone.  Riding  along  a  gorge  ledge, 
six  feet  wide,  a  hundred  feet  above  a  river,  is  not  the 
pleasantest  kind  of  travelling,  but  as  long  as  one  can 
keep  his  seat  on  the  back  of  a  sure-footed  pony,  there 
is  little  danger,  except  in  meeting  a  long  mule  car- 
avan coming  from  an  opposite  direction.    The  road 

277 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

is  hardly  wide  enough  to  permit  of  two  animals  pass- 
ing, and  to  add  to  the  difficulty,  mules  always  have 
the  effect  of  making  the  ponies  shy  and  plunge,  and 
evince  a  strong  desire  to  jump  over  the  edge  of  the 
precipice. 

For  half  an  hour  our  ponies  had  been  creeping 
cautiously  along  the  ledge  one  afternoon,  when  we 
suddenly  heard  the  harsh  "  tur  tur  "  of  a  caravan  of 
mules  approaching  from  the  other  side  of  the  pro- 
montory we  were  rounding,  which  had  hidden  them 
from  us.  Our  shijang  reined  short  and  looking 
back  gave  a  quick  command.  Every  man  in  the 
line  sidled  his  pony  close  against  the  side  of  the 
rock  so  as  to  keep  the  inside  of  the  road.  A  min- 
ute later  the  nose  and  ears  of  the  bell  mule  came 
around  the  point  of  the  promontory.  Every  pony 
rose  on  two  legs  wild  with  fright.  But  the  shijang 
only  urged  his  pony  forward  by  plying  his  whip 
and  we  followed.  Had  we  halted  at  that  moment, 
some  horse  and  rider  might  have  gone  into  the 
Han,  a  hundred  feet  below,  but  by  persistently 
moving  ahead  we  were  shut  in  by  a  barrier  of 
mules.  Our  ponies  had  not  room  enough  to  turn 
around,  so  that  their  only  recourse  was  to  plunge 
forward  close  to  the  wall  that  rose  above  us.  The 
caravan  was  a  long  one,  and  several  especially  dis- 
agreeable mules  made  lunges  at  us  with  their  hind 
legs.  The  soldiers  were  prepared  for  this,  and 
whenever  they  saw  a  mule  get  too  close,  crack 
would  go  a  whip  and  a  saddened  mule  would  hurry 

278 


A    RURROWKD    FARM-HULSli. 


THROUGH   THE   TSINGLINGS 

back  to  join  the  caravan.  It  seemed  to  me  a  very 
ticklish  experience  that  I  was  glad  to  have  ended 
safely  on  the  rocky  shelf,  and  not  in  the  rushing 
torrent  below. 

Through  the  medium  of  Mr.  Duncan's  inter- 
preting, I  told  the  shijang  that  I  greatly  admired 
the  nerve  and  coolness  he  had  displayed  in  guiding 
us  past  the  mules.  He  smiled  kindly  at  my  bar- 
barian fears.  "In  riding,"  he  said,  "there  is  never 
any  danger  if  you  can  only  make  your  pony  do 
what  you  want  him  to."  The  shijang  was  a  fair 
specimen  of  the  kind  of  soldiers  who  rode  with  me 
through  China.  The  pay  of  men  of  their  kind  is 
about  three  dollars  a  month  ;  their  food  is  rice  and 
tea.  Their  grotesqueness  is  a  source  of  endless 
amusement  to  every  foreign  second  lieutenant  sta- 
tioned in  Tien-tsin  and  Shanghai,  but  I  am  just  un- 
military  enough  to  believe  that  if  these  same  sol- 
diers, who  wear  gaudy  uniforms  and  who  tie  their 
queues  around  their  heads,  received  half  the  training 
and  drill  over  which  Tommy  Atkins  grumbles  daily, 
they  might  surprise  men  who  wear  V.  C's  and  Black 
Eagles. 

The  scarcity  of  population  in  the  Tsinglings  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  the  whole  district  from  Sian 
to  the  borders  of  Honan  is  embraced  in  the  one 
prefecture  of  Shang,  an  old  walled  town  on  the 
banks  of  the  Han.  For  fifty  miles  south  of  Shang 
one  frequently  sees  openings  high  up  on  the  moun- 
tain-side just  large  enough  to  permit  of  one  person 

279 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

entering  at  a  time.  These  are  the  entrances  to 
huge  caves  that  are  places  of  refuge  for  the  scat- 
tered farmers  of  the  community.  In  time  of  war 
or  rebellion,  when  an  alarm  of  an  approaching 
enemy  is  sounded,  the  inhabitants  of  the  entire 
country-side  hurry  to  the  caves  and  hide  in  them 
until  the  danger  is  passed.  The  cave  entrances, 
I  passed,  were  always  in  the  steepest  parts  of  the 
mountain  and  were  not  approached  by  road  or 
pathway.  How  the  refugees  succeeded  in  enter- 
ing them  I  was  never  able  to  discover.  In  the 
face  of  a  bluff  overlooking  the  Han,  I  counted  as 
many  as  fifteen  of  these  odd-looking  holes,  which 
one  of  the  soldiers  told  me  had  been  made  during 
the  Mohammedan  rebellion. 

A  fondness  for  digging  caves  is  a  peculiarity 
of  the  people  of  Shensi.  On  the  larger  farms  the 
granary  and  storehouse  is  usually  a  cave  in  the  side 
of  the  mountain.  Of  the  thousands  of  famine- 
victims  who  starved  to  death  in  the  caves  of  Sian 
suburbs,  I  have  already  spoken.  On  the  plain  near 
San  Yuan,  I  saw  several  Shensi  homes  that  were 
simply  burrows  dug  under  the  loess  soil  like  rabbit 
warrens.  They  were  in  some  cases  divided  into 
rooms  and  were  lighted  by  a  hole  through  the  sur- 
face of  the  ground.  But  the  refuge  caves  of  the 
Tsinglings  were  the  strangest  form  of  the  cave- 
building  habit  that  I  saw  manifested  anywhere  in 
China.  In  our  hurried  ride  past  them  I  had  no 
opportunity  of  exploring  them.     It  is  possible  that 

280 


THROUGH    THE   TSINGLINGS 

a  study  of  the  caves  of  Southern  Shensi  might  ex- 
plain some  of  the  unanswered  questions  of  the  cliff- 
dweller  remains  of  our  own  country. 

Late  on  the  afternoon  of  the  fifth  day  after 
leaving  Sian,  we  clattered  over  the  stone  pavement 
of  the  one  long  street  of  Lung  Ku  Chai.  Our 
ponies  were  lathered  and  drooping.  Our  last 
bar  of  chocolate  and  our  last  drop  of  condensed 
milk  had  been  consumed  at  the  day's  noon  meal. 
Our  voices  were  husky  and  our  clothes  were  travel- 
stained.  As  faint  and  aching  I  finally  drew  up  at 
the  gate  of  the  inn,  the  first  person  I  saw  was 
Wang,  who  had  arrived  only  an  hour  before  us. 
He,  too,  showed  the  effects  of  a  journey  through  the 
Tsinglings.  His  velvet  blouse  was  covered  with 
dust  and  his  queue  was  sadly  dishevelled.  He  had 
bruised  his  knee  in  climbing  a  mountain  and 
limped  painfully,  but  from  the  piles  of  luggage  still 
strapped  to  the  pack  saddles  in  the  court-yard,  he 
had  extracted  my  shaving  kit. 

As  a  soldier  half  lifted  me  from  the  saddle, 
Wang  handed  me  my  razors.  "For  five  days,"  he 
said,  "  the  beard  of  my  master  is  growing.  I  think 
maybe  he  like  to  cut  it  off."  I  thanked  him  for 
his  thoughtfulness,  but  I  added,  "  You  are  in  a 
great  deal  worse  shape  than  I  am.  You  needn't 
trouble  about  me.  Have  your  queue  braided  and 
then  lie  down  on  your  pooka  and  take  a  nap." 
He  smiled  with  the  far-aw^ay,  rather  sad  smile  of 
his  race.      "  It  would  not  be  right  for  me  to  sleep, 

281 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

sir,"  he  said,  "  before  I  see  that  you  are  resting. 
The  queue  is  Chinese ;  it  can  wait  patiently,  but 
the  beard  is  European  ;  it  cannot  wait ;  it  must  go 
quickly." 


282 


CHAPTER    XIX 

ON  THE  HAN 

NO  one  but  a  Chinaman  would  ever  think  of 
calling  the  upper  Han  navigable.  For 
more  than  a  hundred  miles  below  Lung  Ku  Chai 
the  water  is  seldom  more  than  two  feet  deep  and  in 
many  places  the  sandy  bottom  can  be  seen  at  a  depth 
of  five  inches. 

As  a  means  of  facilitating  the  transportation 
of  the  vast  amount  of  freight  that  comes  into 
Shensi  by  way  of  the  Han,  any  ordinary  race  would 
deepen  the  river  by  dredging,  but  that  is  not  the 
Chinese  way.  The  natural  depth  of  the  river  must 
not  be  changed.  Boats  must  be  adapted  to  meet 
conditions  that  have  always  existed.  Han  River 
boats  are  entirely  different  from  the  junks  so  com- 
mon both  on  the  coast  and  the  larger  rivers  of 
China.  Through  the  Han  gorges  the  boats  are 
canoes,  remarkably  like  those  of  North  American 
Indians.  The  boats  are  pointed  at  both  ends  and  the 
prow  and  stern  are  both  continued  above  the  gunwale 
in  long,  sweeping  curves.  Although  they  are  with- 
out keels  the  sides  of  Han  River  canoes  have  a  sheer 
slope  toward  the  centre  of  the  bottom,  which  is 
seldom  more  than  four   inches  wide.     This  shape 

283 


THROUGH    HIDDEN   SHENSI 

helps  to  steady  the  canoes  and  prevents  their  up- 
setting when  rounding  a  sharp  turn  in  the  river  or 
in  passing  through  a  rapid.  Ever  since  the  Chi- 
nese have  had  boats  they  have  divided  them  into 
water-tight  compartments  on  the  same  principle 
which  has  been  introduced  into  the  construc- 
tion of  ocean  liners  during  the  last  quarter  of  a 
century. 

In  many  junks  the  compartment  bulkheads  are 
only  high  enough  to  protect  the  keel,  but  in  Han 
River  canoes  they  extend  to  the  gunwales.  They 
are  very  awkward  to  climb  over  when  one  has  to 
pass  from  one  end  of  the  boat  to  the  other,  but  they 
make  it  impossible  for  the  canoe  to  sink  in  case  of 
an  accident.  If  a  boat  on  the  Han  were  cut  in  two 
both  sections  would  still  remain  afloat.  Although 
the  canoes  are  built  for  carrying  freight,  they  are 
made  habitable  for  passengers  by  covering  them 
with  a  roof  of  matting  stretched  on  a  bamboo 
frame.  Between  the  bulkhead  compartments 
shelves  are  nailed  that  serve  as  benches  by  day  and 
as  beds  at  night.  At  the  bow  and  stern  is  a  small 
triangular  deck,  fitted  with  a  clumsy  row-lock. 
Through  this  is  inserted  a  long  handle  with  a  flat 
board  on  the  end  that  performs  the  double  duty  of 
oar  and  rudder.  At  this  oar  the  boatmen  take 
turns  when  the  water  is  deep  enough  to  permit  of 
its  use,  but  most  of  the  time  the  propelling  power 
is  only  the  long  poles  over  which  the  crew  toil  and 
perspire. 

284 


J 

f 

'^  i^l 

1 

I 

1  T 

i: 

"1 

\ 

ON   THE   HAN 

The  crew  of  a  canoe  usually  consists  of  five 
men,  under  a  captain  who  is  called  a  lowban.  In 
some  cases  the  lowban  is  also  the  owner  of  the 
boat,  but  most  of  the  Han  canoes  are  owned  by  a 
Chinese  transportation  company,  whose  headquar- 
ters are  in  Honan.  Contracts  for  freight  and 
passengers  are  made  with  the  lowban.  For  the 
voyage  through  the  gorges  we  chartered  three 
canoes. 

Two  of  them  we  fitted  up  as  living  quarters, 
and  the  third  served  as  a  kitchen,  dining-saloon, 
and  sleeping  apartments  for  servants  and  the  sol- 
diers who  accompanied  us.  Our  meals  were  cooked 
in  a  little  mud  oven  that  we  purchased  in  Lung  Ku 
Chai,  together  with  some  fagots  for  fuel  and  a  sup- 
ply of  fresh  eggs,  rice,  and  tea,  that  constituted  our 
commissariat.  About  daybreak  on  the  morning  fol- 
lowing our  arrival  in  Lung  Ku  Chai,  the  lowbans 
shouted  to  their  crews.  The  poles  were  shoved 
into  the  mud  of  the  bottom  and  our  three  canoes, 
in  procession,  were  headed  down  the  Han. 

The  boatmen  of  the  gorges  are  strange  folk, 
who  neither  look  nor  act  like  other  Chinese,  but 
both  in  appearance  and  manner  are  as  much  like 
North  American  Indians  as  their  boats  are  like 
canoes. 

Their  skins  are  the  colour  of  copper,  and  their 
features  are  straight,  with  high  cheek-bones  and 
eyes  less  almond-shaped  than  those  of  the  Mongol 
type.     They  are  tall,  straight  men,  very  agile  and 

285 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

sinewy.  They  are  taciturn  and  rather  gruff.  Their 
conversation  is  usually  carried  on  in  monosyllables. 
They  smile  sometimes,  and  occasionally  startle  one 
by  the  suddenness  and  loudness  of  their  laughter, 
but  they  say  little.  To  me  they  always  seemed  de- 
void of  the  ordinary  Chinese  fondness  for  argument 
and  serious  conversation.  The  men  of  the  upper 
Han  were  the  only  Chinese  I  have  ever  met  with 
who  disliked  their  queues.  I  Kave  never  known  a 
boatman  to  remove  the  turban  that  he  wore  over 
his  queue  tightly  coiled  around  his  head.  Among 
the  boatmen  it  is  regarded  as  a  disgrace  for  a  man 
to  allow  his  queue  to  be  seen.  This  feeling  once 
prevailed  all  over  China.  The  queue  was  original- 
ly a  mark  of  subjection  enforced  upon  the  Black 
Haired  People,  four  hundred  years  ago,  by  the 
Manchus,  but  the  braided  hair  soon  became  fash- 
ionable and  is  to-day  generally  regarded  by  Man- 
chus and  Chinese  alike  as  a  m.an's  chief  beauty. 

Han  boatmen  never  get  nearer  to  the  thickly 
populated  part  of  the  Empire  than  the  borders  of 
the  province  of  Hupeh,  where  all  freight  bound  up 
or  down  the  river  is  transferred  from  their  canoes 
to  junks.  Their  wives  and  children,  whom  they  sel- 
dom see,  live  in  isolated  villages  that  are  hidden 
away  among  the  mountains. 

The  boatman's  days  and  nights  are  spent  on 
the  old  river,  whose  primitive  wildness  has  never 
been  disturbed  during  the  thousands  of  years  it  has 
been  traversed  by  the  Sons  of  Han.     To  a  man  of 

286 


ON   THE   HAN 

the  gorges,  the  river  is  not  only  a  means  of  liveli- 
hood, it  is  his  life  and  his  religion. 

Although  in  the  wildest  part  of  the  Han  cliffs 
one  finds  shrines  and  temples,  they  are  of  little 
interest  to  the  men  who  pole  slowly  past  them. 
The  boatmen  have  a  religion  that  is  all  their  own 
and  that  is  neither  Buddhist  nor  Confucian.  A 
kind  of  primitive  Pantheism  prevails  in  the  gorges. 
The  trees  and  rocks  and  the  river  itself  are  peopled 
by  spirits,  some  of  vv^hom  are  good  and  some  evil. 
The  spirits  are  omnipresent  and  never  sleep ;  they 
are  all  under  the  control  of  a  mysterious  being 
called  the  River  Dragon.  Occasionally  he  renders 
assistance  to  good  boatmen,  but  most  of  the  time, 
so  far  as  I  was  able  to  discover,  he  is  an  intensely 
disagreeable  person.  He  sends  adverse  winds  and 
he  puts  hidden  rocks  in  the  shallows.  Like  the 
traditional  Manitou  of  the  Indians,  the  River 
Dragon  sometimes  assumes  the  form  of  a  bird  or 
a  tree.  The  home  of  the  River  Dragon  is  some- 
where under  the  river,  where  there  are  green  fields 
and  no  mountains.  Whenever  a  contrary  wind  is 
blowing  up  the  gorges,  all  the  crew  stop  work. 
The  lowban  sits  cross-legged  on  the  triangular  deck 
forward  and  makes  a  crooning  noise  in  imitation  of 
the  wind.  This  constitutes  a  sort  of  prayer  to  the 
River  Dragon  for  a  favourable  breeze.  For  several 
days  after  our  embarkation  at  La  Ho  Kien,  I  was 
at  a  loss  to  understand  why  the  boatmen  w^ould 
never  tell  how  many  li  we  had  gone  during  the  day 

287 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

and  would  always  grow  sullen  and  morose  when 
asked  questions  about  the  journey. 

As  it  was  sometimes  important  for  us  to  have 
some  idea  of  the  progress  we  were  making,  I  one 
day  took  the  lowban  severely  to  task  for  his  strange 
dislike  of  discussing  distances.  "  I  don't  want  any 
more  nonsense  about  it,"  I  said.  "  When  you  are 
asked  how  far  we  have  gone,  you  must  reply." 

"  Do  you  not  understand,"  the  lowban  asked, 
in  a  pleading  tone,  "that  the  evil  spirits  are  listen- 
ing to  every  word  we  say  ?  If  they  understood  that 
we  were  in  a  hurry  they  would  put  obstacles  in  our 
way  from  sheer  malice.  The  only  way  is  not  to 
let  them  know  what  we  are  doing." 

At  night  the  canoes  are  anchored  by  sticking 
the  poles  through  holes  in  the  curved  bows  into  the 
mud  of  the  river  bottom.  After  the  crew  have 
eaten  their  evening  meal  they  make  a  little  bonfire 
of  incense-sticks  in  the  rice-kettle.  This  is  an  offer- 
ing to  propitiate  the  River  Dragon  and  to  secure 
his  favour  for  the  next  day's  voyage.  Around  the 
incense-fire  the  boatmen  seem  to  throw  aside  some 
of  their  habitual  reserve.  They  tell  stories  about 
the  old  spirits,  and  sometimes,  led  by  the  lowban, 
they  break  into  a  song.  It  is  the  same  kind  of  sing- 
ing that  one  hears  all  over  China,  a  sort  of  chant  in 
a  guttural  monotone  that  usually  is  discordant  and 
jarring.  The  only  time  and  place  where  I  found  it 
at  all  bearable,  was  at  night  in  the  gorges,  where 
the  harshness  of  the  singing  was  softened   by  its 

288 


ON   THE    HAN 

echoes  on  the  cliffs  and  mountains  that  surrounded 
us.  The  greater  part  of  the  time  the  boatmen  wear 
no  shoes,  and  their  trousers  are  invariably  rolled  up 
to  their  knees.  Whenever  a  grating  noise  gives 
warning  that  a  canoe  is  fast  on  the  bottom,  the  crew 
jump  overboard  and  begin  a  series  of  manoeuvres  to 
get  it  off.  This  is  sometimes  accomplished  by  pull- 
ing and  hauling  at  the  bow  and  stern,  but  when 
the  shallow  extends  for  some  distance  the  lowban 
produces  a  large  wooden  hoe  from  under  the  deck, 
and  with  it  the  boatmen  dredge  out  a  canal  into 
deeper  water. 

Shallows  and  adverse  winds  and  rocks  make 
travelling  on  the  Han  exceedingly  slow.  Twelve 
miles  is  a  good  day's  progress,  and  I  doubt  if  any 
other  boatmen  on  earth  would  have  the  patience  to 
do  so  much  strenuous  shoulder  shoving  as  is  re- 
quired for  even  this  short  distance.  Shallow  as  is 
the  water  of  the  river,  one  encounters  rapids  at 
intervals  of  every  twenty  or  thirty  miles.  Strewn 
along  the  banks  are  numerous  wrecks  of  canoes  that 
have  gone  to  pieces  on  the  jagged  rocks  that  rise  in 
the  midst  of  the  current.  On  approaching  a  rapid, 
the  crews  of  our  three  boats  would  go  ashore  and 
fasten  long  ropes  to  the  sterns  of  the  canoes.  Then, 
holding  back  with  their  united  strength,  they  would 
lower  each  boat  down  the  descent,  in  much  the  same 
way  that  a  barrel  might  be  let  down  into  a  cellar. 

The  gorges  in  some  places  are  so  narrow  that 
there  is  hardly  room  for  two  canoes  to  pass  each 

289 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSl 

other.  Whenever  one  of  them  runs  aground  on  a 
shallow,  it  partially  blockades  the  river.  All  heavily 
laden  canoes  bound  up  or  down  the  river  must  wait 
until  the  one  aground  has  been  floated  again.  Be- 
fore this  can  be  accomplished,  the  cargo  may  have 
to  be  lightened,  or  a  hole  patched  that  has  been 
made  in  the  bottom  by  a  rock. 

We  frequently  passed  thirty  or  forty  belated 
boats  waiting  for  the  derelict  to  be  dislodged.  Our 
canoes  were  always  able  to  squeeze  through  the 
press,  partly  because  they  were  lighter  and  drew  less 
water  than  the  rest,  and  also  because  Prince  Ching's 
card  gave  us  special  privileges  on  the  Han  as  else- 
where in  China.  Whenever  we  came  to  a  blockade 
our  three  soldiers  compelled  the  boatmen  of  the 
belated  fleet  to  assist  in  pushing  us  through.  The 
shoulders  of  twenty  stalwart  men  of  the  gorges 
shoving  at  the  stern  of  a  boat  whose  only  cargo  is 
four  men  and  their  pookas,  furnished  sufficient 
motive  power  to  carry  us  some  distance  over  dry 
ground. 

The  Chinese  characteristic  of  knowing  how  to 
wait  is  nowhere  better  illustrated  than  in  these 
blockades  on  the  Han.  In  passing  a  blockade  by  a 
shallow,  we  were,  one  day,  hailed  in  English  by  a 
passenger  of  one  of  the  boats,  who  was  a  Chinese 
telegraph  operator  on  his  way  to  a  town  in  Hupeh. 
He  said  that  his  canoe  had  been  for  three  days  in 
the  position  where  we  saw  it,  but  he  added  that 
life  on  the  Han  was  quite  as  pleasant  as  anywhere 

290 


ON    THE    HAN 

else,  and  he  had  no  objection  to  waiting  for  three 
days  more.  Our  crews  looked  upon  the  blockades 
as  places  for  resting,  and  several  times  complained 
at  our  hurry  to  pass  through  them. 

Like  the  canoes  and  the  boatmen,  the  Han 
gorges  are  themselves  different  from  anything  else 
I  have  seen  in  China.  Without  inhabitants,  without 
farms  or  roads  or  carts,  the  land  through  which  the 
Han  winds  is  a  lonely  wilderness  that  separates  old 
China  from  the  new  ;  a  lovely  interim  between  the 
crowded,  grey  plains  of  the  North  and  of  the  South. 
Most  of  China  is  a  level  field  for  the  study  of  iso- 
lated man  and  his  work,  his  learning,  his  originality, 
and  his  eternity  ;  but  for  three  hundred  miles  below 
Lung  Ku  Chai  it  is  nature,  beautiful  and  primitive, 
that  unfolds  in  an  unending  panorama  as  the  canoe 
drops  down  the  river.  It  is  really  a  relief  to  find 
anything  in  the  country  of  the  isolated  man  that  is 
older  than  he.  He  seems  never  to  have  begun  or 
to  have  changed.  He  has  always  been  as  he  is  to- 
day. But  long  before  he  came,  the  cliffs  and  the 
mountains  were  as  wild  and  simple  as  now. 

This  restfulness  adds  to  the  charm  of  the 
gorges  through  which  the  Han  wanders  lazily  on 
its  way  to  the  Yang  tse.  Sometimes  the  shallow 
current  lingers  around  the  base  of  a  mountain  tower- 
ing far  above.  Sometimes  the  water  is  compressed 
into  a  torrent  that  foams  and  bubbles  through  a  fis- 
sures pecially  prepared  to  receive  it.  In  such  places 
the  walls  of  the  gorge  rise  from  the  water's  edge  as 

291 


THROUGH    HIDDEN   SHENSI 

sheer  and  unyielding  as  the  walls  of  a  house,  often 
so  high  that  they  partially  shut  out  the  sunlight,  and 
the  cabin  under  the  matting  is  darkened  at  mid-day. 
Again  one  floats  for  miles  past  sandy  beaches,  from 
which  the  Han  has  receded  and  which  form  a  white 
margin  at  the  base  of  the  picture. 

When  there  are  no  rocks  along  the  gorges,  the 
hills  and  lower  mountains  are  covered  with  under- 
brush whose  tints  vary  with  the  sky  and  the  day. 
At  noon  the  colour  of  the  gorges  is  green.  In  the 
early  morning  they  are  purple,  and  when  a  sunset 
ray  flashes  across  them,  hills  and  cHffs  and  river 
take  on  a  golden  brown.  Often  the  river  seems  to 
end  at  a  point  in  mid-stream  where  two  opposite 
mountains  meet,  but  on  nearer  approach  they  are 
seen  to  divide  and  make  way  for  the  current  that 
turns  sharply  around  one  of  them.  The  boatmen 
jump  overboard  and  silently  throw  their  shoulders 
against  the  stern.  The  lowban  shouts  an  order 
and  the  canoe  swishes  on  again. 

There  are  birds,  too,  in  the  gorges,  but,  like 
their  environment,  they  are  silent.  No  winged 
song  is  heard  in  the  solitudes.  Pheasants  occasion- 
ally come  out  from  underneath  the  bushes  to  stare 
at  the  canoes  as  they  pass ;  and  grey  birds  that 
look  like  large  pigeons  with  long,  sharp  bills,  some- 
times fly  into  the  canoes  and  gaze  at  the  human 
beings  under  the  matting.  These  birds  are  always 
in  pairs,  and  are  for  this  reason  called  "married 
birds."     They  are  almost  without  fear  of  man,  and 

292 


ON   THE   HAN 

will  often  fly  almost  near  enough  to  allow  you  to 
touch  them.  The  boatmen  think  that  the  birds  may 
be  spirits  in  disguise  and  treat  them  with  great  re- 
spect. They  frequently  throw  to  them  grains  of 
rice  that  they  can  ill  afford  to  spare  from  their  own 
scanty  supply. 

Oh,  the  nights  on  the  Han  when  the  anchor 
poles  were  all  stuck  close  to  a  white  beach  or  in  the 
mud  of  some  little  cove,  and  the  stars  shone  down 
from  a  clear  December  sky  !  It  was  at  such  times 
that  Wang  and  I  would  try  to  make  the  lowban 
talk  over  his  incense-fire  and  tell  us  stories  about 
the  River  Dragon  and  the  wind  spirits  and  all  the 
rest  of  the  delightful  old  lies  that  were  yet  unwith- 
ered  by  a  knowledge  of  facts.  I  think  that  down 
in  the  depths  of  his  heart,  Wang  half  believed  the 
lowban's  yarns.  He  often  took  occasion  during 
our  talks  around  the  incense-fire  to  ask  me  "  half 
wild-child  "  questions  that  he  kept  carefully  to  him- 
self at  other  times.  He  always  asked  them  timidly 
as  though  he  expected  that  I  would  laugh  at  them. 

"The  lowban  is  foolish  man,"  Wang  once 
said  to  me  ;  **  he  does  not  understand  right.  The 
dragon  is  not  of  the  Han  River  only.  He  is  the 
big  dragon  that  is  everywhere.  Some  day  he  will 
eat  every  good  thing  in  the  world  so  that  it  will  dry 
up  and  go  to  pieces.  The  European  and  the  mis- 
sionary say  that  such  a  thing  is  fool-talk.  I  sup- 
pose you  think  so,  too."  I  replied  that  to  a  very 
large  extent  I  agreed  with  him,  and  that  I  certainly 

293 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

did  believe  in  a  universal  dragon  who  was  always 
fighting  against  truth  and  light  and  who  would 
undoubtedly  like  to  wither  the  world,  but  I  said 
that  I  did  not  consider  the  victory  of  the  dragon  a 
foregone  conclusion.  It  seemed  to  me  that  the 
dragon  was  being  constantly  driven  into  the  back- 
ground,  and  that  the  time  might  come  when  he 
would  disappear  altogether. 

The  nearest  approach  to  a  town — on  the  upper 
Han — is  the  cluster  of  houses  called  Kingtse 
Kwan  that  mark  the  boundary  line  between  Shensi 
and  Honan.  When  the  river  is  at  especially  low 
water  in  mid-summer,  Kingtse  Kwan  is  the  head 
of  navigation,  and  for  that  reason  is  a  place  of  some 
importance.  Before  the  Boxer  uprising  it  was  the 
centre  of  considerable  mission  activity,  but  the 
missionaries  were  compelled  to  fly  for  their  lives, 
and  their  station  was  partially  destroyed  by  a  mob. 
At  Kingtse  Kwan  the  river  bends  to  the  south- 
ward, and  for  more  than  fifty  miles  its  course  is 
through  the  western  end  of  Honan. 

On  one  of  these  days  on  the  Han  I  was  over- 
taken by  a  mild  attack  of  the  fever  that  sooner  or 
later  is  almost  certain  to  find  every  foreigner  who 
ventures  far  into  China.  As  is  usually  the  case,  the 
fever  was  as  sudden  as  it  was  overpowering.  Half 
an  hour  after  the  appearance  of  the  first  symptoms 
I  was  lying  on  my  bunk  under  the  matting  with 
my  brain  sadly  tangled  and  my  temperature  rapidly 
rising.   **  Quinine,  phenacetine,  and  perspiration  "  was 

294 


ON    THE    HAN 

Mr.  Duncan's  treatment,  and  for  fighting  a  Chinese 
fever  under  difficulties  I  would  rather  trust  the 
"Missionary  of  Sian  "  than  the  most  skilful  physi- 
cian in  the  world.  The  medicine  was  quickly  ad- 
ministered, from  phials  which  the  missionary  always 
carried  in  a  raw-hide  case ;  but  the  carrying  out  of 
the  rest  of  the  programme  required  some  nursing, 
and  for  this  I  was  dependent  upon  Wang, 

Nearly  two  months  before,  he  had  been  carried 
into  a  Shansi  kung  kwan  suffering  from  a  kind  of 
nervous  exhaustion  due  to  fatigue.  I  had  sat  up 
with  him  during  the  night  and  I  had  taken  care  of 
him,  but  all  that  I  had  been  able  to  do  for  him 
amounted  to  nothing,  and  I  had  almost  forgotten 
all  about  it  ;  but  on  the  afternoon  of  my  fever, 
Wang  said  to  me,  "  When  I  was  sick  you  were  to 
me  a  father.  You  are  my  master,  but  besides  you 
belong  my  friend.  You  are  European  and  I  am 
Chinese,  but  all  the  same  we  are  one.  When  you 
are  sick  it  is  for  me  to  show  that  I  can  stick  to  you." 

Besides  all  my  own  blankets  and  sheepskins,  he 
piled  over  me  his  own  pooka,  although  it  was  his 
only  covering  at  night  from  the  cold  December 
wind,  against  which  the  flimsy  matting-roof  of  our 
cabin  afforded  little  protection.  He  stole  several 
sheepskins  from  the  lowban,  and  added  them  to  the 
pile.  While  my  fever  lasted,  Wang  never  left  me 
for  a  minute.  He  would  not  go  into  the  cook-boat 
for  his  meals,  but  lived  on  bowls  of  rice  that  he  got 
from    the  lowban.     At  night  he  lay  down  on  the 

295 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

narrow  keel-board  alongside  of  my  bunk,  but  when 
he  slept  I  do  not  know.  Whenever  I  awoke  from 
a  kind  of  delirious  sleep,  there  were  Wang's  black 
eyes  shining  at  me  out  of  the  darkness.  If  I  kicked 
off  a  pooka,  he  would  jump  up  instantly  and  re- 
place it  on  the  pile  again.  He  never  said  anything, 
but  occasionally  when  he  thought  I  was  sleeping  he 
would  gently  take  hold  of  my  hand  to  see  if  my 
temperature  had  fallen. 

After  about  thirty-six  hours  under  the  blankets, 
I  awoke  one  morning  with  the  fever  broken.  "  Hello, 
Wang,"  I  said.  "You  can  take  away  some  of  these 
things  now.  I  am  coming  around."  For  reply,  he 
sprang  up  from  the  floor  and  shouted  to  Mr.  Dun- 
can, who  was  in  the  bow  with  the  lowban.  "  It  is 
good  thing.  He  is  not  crazy  now."  Many  times 
since,  when  I  have  read  of  the  heathen  darkness 
and  original  sin  that  in  the  opinion  of  some  persons 
are  the  two  chief  elements  in  Chinese  character,  I 
have  thought  of  those  two  faithful  black  eyes  that 
were  never  closed  during  those  feverish  days  and 
nights  in  the  gorges  of  the  Han.  Wang,  with  his 
immobile  yellow  face  and  his  long  queue,  was  "only 
a  Chinaman,"  and  he  had  only  a  Chinese  heart  and 
a  Chinese  soul.  But  without  him  I  never  could 
have  gone  through  China.  He  perhaps  saved  my 
life.  I  am  proud  to  say  that  he  was  my  "  very  good 
friend." 


296 


CHAPTER   XX 

THROUGH    HUPEH    IN   A   JUNK 

IF  the  wind  spirits  of  the  Han  are  not  especially 
unpropitious  the  voyager  will  on  about  the  tenth 
day  after  leaving  Lung  Ku  Chai  drift  with  the  cur- 
rent around  a  promontory  out  upon  an  abrupt  wi- 
dening of  the  river  that  at  first  sight  seems  almost 
like  a  small  lake.  On  one  side,  the  bank  rises  in  a 
high  bluff  that  is  surmounted  by  a  stone  wall  and 
gateway,  the  unmistakable  signs  of  a  city.  A  stone 
pier  juts  out  into  the  river,  and  from  it  a  stairway 
winds  up  to  the  gateway.  This  is  La  Ho  Kieu,  one 
of  the  river-towns  of  Hupeh.  It  is  from  this  point 
that  the  Han  becomes  essentially  commercial.  In 
the  river-bed  are  twenty  or  thirty  junks  of  every 
variety  known  to  China.  Some  are  for  passengers 
and  some  are  for  freight.  Some  are  moored  to  the 
wharf  and  some  are  anchored  in  mid-stream.  On 
the  junks  and  about  the  wharves  are  crowds  of  men 
transferring  merchandise  from  one  boat  to  another 
and  carrying  it  in  long  processions  that  wind  in 
single  file  up  the  stairway.  The  life  and  activity  of 
the  scene  are  accentuated  by  contrast  with  the  silent 
gorges  from  which  the  canoe  has  just  emerged.  The 
barrier  mountains  tower  dim  behind.     The  traveller 

297 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

is  on    a   mighty  commercial   river   of   commercial 
China. 

As  in  most  of  the  towns  in  Western  Hupeh,  the 
weaving  of  silk  is  the  chief  industry  of  La  Ho  Kieu. 
In  the  fields  about  the  town  are  thousands  of  mul- 
berry trees,  from  which  the  cocoons  are  gathered, 
and  are  brought  in  baskets  to  the  factories  in  the 
town.  The  exterior  of  a  Chinese  silk  factory  gives 
little  indication  of  the  nature  or  extent  of  the  busi- 
ness carried  on  within.  Chinese  merchants  of  all 
kinds  seem  always  quite  as  anxious  to  conceal  the 
magnitude  or  the  success  of  their  enterprises  as 
Americans  are  to  advertise  them.  A  little  sign 
over  a  doorway  informs  the  passer-by  that  this  is 
the  entrance  to  a  "silk  shop."  In  the  small  front 
room  is  a  divan  with  the  persistent  tea-cups  and  the 
right  and  left  hand  seats.  No  silk  or  any  other  kind 
of  merchandise  is  visible  anywhere,  and  there  is 
nothing  in  the  conduct  of  either  the  proprietor  or 
his  clerks  that  indicates  a  desire  to  sell  anything.  A 
customer  sits  on  the  divan  while  a  servant  brings 
him  a  cup  of  tea.  If  he  expresses  a  desire  to  pur- 
chase, the  proprietor  begins  taking  from  a  chest  in 
the  corner,  roll  after  roll  of  silk,  which  he  spreads 
on  a  little  table  in  the  centre  of  the  room.  His 
manner,  meanwhile,  is  supremely  indifferent.  He 
silently  displays  his  wares  without  deigning  an  ex- 
planation, much  less  urging  a  purchase.  He  takes 
pains  to  unroll,  at  first,  silk  of  a  cheap  and  inferior 
quality,  reserving  an  exhibit  of  the  finer  grades  until 

298 


THROUGH    HUPEH    IN    A   JUNK 

his  customer  expresses  a  desire  to  see  them.  Across 
a  court-yard,  in  the  rear  of  the  shop,  is  the  factory. 
It  consists  of  three  or  four  large  rooms,  where  can 
be  seen  the  entire  process  of  silk  manufacture  from 
the  cocoon  to  the  cloth. 

Although  the  silk  industry  of  China  dates  from 
the  time  of  Hwang  Ti,  2800  b.c,  and  the  processes 
employed  have  never  differed  materially  from  what 
they  are  to-day,  the  system  of  manufacture  is  remark- 
ably like  that  found  in  large  silk-mills  on  our  side  of 
the  world.  The  looms  are  quite  as  intricate  as  those 
used  in  America,  the  only  essential  difference  being 
that  the  motive  power  in  Hupeh  is  afoot-treadle  in- 
stead of  steam.  Two  men  are  employed  at  every 
loom,  the  weaver  sits  in  front  at  the  treadle  and 
works  the  shuttle  while  another  man  sets  the  pattern 
above  on  a  network  of  catgut  strings.  As  silk 
weaving  is  a  form  of  skilled  labour  requiring  three 
or  four  years  to  master,  a  weaver  receives  the  ex- 
traordinarily high  wages  of  fifty  cents  a  day,  which 
is  more  than  twice  as  much  as  can  be  earned  by  a 
labourer  in  any  other  trade  in  Hupeh.  The  kind  of 
silk  that  I  saw  produced  on  the  looms  of  La  Ho 
Kieu  is  very  different  from  the  flimsy  material  sold 
in  New  York  as  China  silk. 

The  silk  cloth  of  Hupeh  is  very  heavy  and  is 
woven  in  brocaded  patterns  of  various  shades  and 
designs.  An  unfailing  market  for  the  product  of 
the  mills  is  afforded  by  the  government  rule  requir- 
ing all  of  the  thousands  of  mandarins  to  wear  only 

299 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

silk  robes  of  a  prescribed  texture  and  fineness.  In 
the  mill  at  La  Ho  Kieu  hundreds  of  yards  of  this 
brown  "mandarin  cloth"  were  slowly  unwinding 
from  the  looms. 

At  La  Ho  Kieu  we  said  good-bye  to  our  canoes 
and  the  men  of  the  gorges.  The  boatmen  piled 
our  luggage  carefully  on  the  pier.  Wang  handed 
to  the  lowbans  the  number  of  taels  that  we  owed 
them.  They  tested  the  genuineness  of  each  lump 
by  knocking  it  on  the  flagstones  ;  they  slipped 
the  money  into  pouches  that  hung  from  their  belts, 
then  dropping  on  their  knees  they  solemnly  bumped 
their  foreheads  on  the  wharf,  in  token  of  grati- 
tude. As  their  canoes  reached  the  middle  of  the 
stream,  the  boatmen  assembled  on  the  afterdecks, 
and,  looking  back  at  us,  waved  their  hands  in  a 
last  farewell.  I  watched  them  sculling  up-stream 
against  the  current.  As  they  disappeared  around 
the  dark  promontory  I  felt  that  the  last  link  was 
breaking  that  had  bound  me  to  old  Shensi,  the 
country  of  the  ancient  plain  and  the  primitive 
mountains.  We  had  left  the  by-path  where  dwelt 
the  River  Dragon  and  the  spirits  and  were  now  on 
a  highway,  crowded  with  men  and  things,  and 
crowds  on  highways,  even  in  China,  always  are 
pressed  forward  toward  realities.  The  land  of 
lingering  and  dreams  was  passed. 

Compared  with  the  canoes,  the  large  junk  on 
which  we  embarked  at  La  Ho  Kieu  was  a  modern 
and    convenient    craft.      It  was   divided  into    five 

300 


THROUGH    HUPEH    IN   A   JUNK 

cabins  and  had  a  tiny  little  dining-room  that  re- 
joiced in  the  luxury  of  a  table  and  three  wooden 
stools. 

In  an  extension  built  over  the  huge,  ungainly 
stern  was  a  kind  of  house  where  lived  the  captain 
and  his  wife.  To  them  the  junk  was  both  a  home 
and  a  livelihood.  The  captain  was  an  affable, 
rather  modern  Chinaman,  who  had  frequently 
visited  Hankow.  He  explained  that  although  we 
were  the  first  passengers  not  Chinese  whom  his 
junk  had  carried,  he  had  often  seen  foreigners 
before  and  *'  had  watched  their  ways."  The  junk 
was  fitted  with  a  mast  and  a  clumsy  square  sail  that 
was  hoisted  only  with  great  difficulty  and  that 
creaked  and  flapped  painfully.  My  experience  of 
Han  River  boats  has  led  me  to  believe  that  they 
carry  sails  more  from  force  of  habit  than  as  a 
motive  power. 

There  is  scarcely  a  mile  of  the  river  that  does 
not  contain  at  least  two  sharp  angles  around  which 
the  junk  must  alter  its  direction.  The  same  wind 
that  for  a  few  minutes  makes  the  heavy  sail  fill, 
will  cause  it  to  flap  or  draw  backward  when  the 
junk  changes  its  course,  but  it  is  such  a  difficult 
task  to  lower  the  sail  that  although  it  is  often  an 
impediment,  it  is  usually  allowed  to  remain  set  all 
day  after  it  has  been  hoisted  in  the  morning.  Far 
more  useful  than  the  sail  is  the  mast.  For  the 
greater  part  of  the  way  the  peak  is  about  on  a 
level  with  the  top  of  the  clay  bluff  that  forms  the 

301 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

bank.  From  the  mast-peak  a  tow-rope  is  carried 
ashore.  The  captain  and  crew  tie  it  around  their 
waists  and  then  walk  along  the  top  of  the  cliff  or 
bluff  slowly  pulling  the  junk  after  them. 

The  number  of  junks  on  the  Han  is  so  great 
that  were  the  tow-ropes  to  be  fastened  to  the  bows 
after  the  manner  of  American  canal-boats,  all  craft 
on  the  river  would  be  constantly  involved  in  a  net- 
work of  ropes  hanging  close  above  the  surface  of 
the  water.  But  by  elevating  the  tow-lines  to  the 
peak  of  the  mast,  junks  are  enabled  to  pass  under 
them. 

At  the  border  line  between  Honan  and 
Hupeh  the  gorges  disappear.  From  that  point 
to  its  junction  with  the  Yang  tse  at  Hankow 
the  Han  flows  between  high  clay  banks.  The 
current  is  brown  and  murky,  very  different  from 
the  clear,  shimmering  stream  fed  by  springs  in  the 
Shensi  mountains.  The  towns  which  one  finds 
on  the  river-bluffs  are  all  very  much  alike.  They 
have  stone  gateways,  from  which  a  flight  of  stone 
steps  descends  to  a  pier  extending  into  the  river. 
Occasionally  on  a  beach  in  a  cleft  in  the  wall-like 
bluff  is  a  little  mud  village  whose  inhabitants  make 
strenuous  efforts  to  sell  eggs  and  vegetables  to 
passing  junks.  In  the  background  of  the  villages 
are  often  groves  of  bamboo-trees  which  from  a  dis- 
tance look  not  unlike  American  willows.  Hupeh, 
too,  is  the  country  of  the  water-buffalo.  Every 
few  miles  on  the  Han  one  sees  the  long,  drooping 

302 


THROUGH    HUPEH    IN    A   JUNK 

horns  of  a  buffalo  just  visible  above  the  surface  of 
the  water. 

In  Hupeh  the  buffalo  divides  with  the  cow  the 
labour  of  ploughing  and  harrowing  the  fields,  but 
the  buffalo's  capacity  for  work  is  not  so  great  as 
that  of  the  patient,  unmilked  Chinese  cow.  A 
buffalo  must  stand  with  all  but  his  head  immersed 
for  several  hours  every  day  to  maintain  his  normal 
equanimity.  Although  he  is  for  the  greater  part  of 
the  time  a  most  docile  beast  of  burden,  if  his  daily 
plunge  in  the  river  is  denied  him  he  becomes  wild 
and  goes  on  a  rampage,  trying  to  kick  and  gore 
everyone  with  whom  he  comes  in  contact.  The 
Hupeh  way  of  characterising  a  man  in  a  rage  is  to 
say,  "  He  is  as  mad  as  a  water-buffalo." 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  the  amount  of 
the  annual  tonnage  of  the  Han  River.  If  it  could 
be  presented  in  figures  the  West  might  form  some 
adequate  idea  of  the  internal  commerce  of  China. 
The  Han  is  one  of  seven  or  eight  rivers,  which,  on 
every  day  in  the  year,  are  crowded  with  thousands 
of  junks  loaded  to  the  gunwales  with  every  form  of 
merchandise  known  to  the  Black  Haired  People. 

The  junks  are  of  light  draught,  and,  according 
to  Western  ideas  of  shipbuilding,  are  ungainly  and 
top-heavy.  Yet  one  of  these  flimsy  boats  is  able  to 
carry  an  amount  of  freight  that  would  tax  the 
capacity  of  a  large  American  coasting  schooner. 
There  seems  to  be  almost  no  limit  to  the  amount 
of    cargo   which    a   fleet   of    junks  can   transport 

3^3 


THROUGH    HIDDEN   SHENSI 

from  one  point  on  the  river  to  another.  Chinese 
ingenuity  is  in  nothing  more  manifest  than  in  the 
methods  of  stowing  freight.  The  cabins  and  upper 
works  are  not  nailed,  but  are  merely  fastened  to- 
gether by  skilful  dovetailing.  When  the  cargo  is 
greater  than  the  hull  will  hold,  the  cabins  are  re- 
moved and  the  surplus  of  freight  is  piled  high  above 
the  gunwales.  Cargoes  of  long  timbers  are  tied 
across  two  or  three  junks  abreast,  forming  of  them  a 
gigantic  catamaran,  on  which  the  crew  sleep  and  eat 
and  cook  their  meals  as  comfortably  as  on  the  floor 
of  a  house.  We  passed  some  twenty  or  thirty  junks 
heavily  laden  with  bales  of  American  and  British 
cotton  cloth.  Room  was  always  provided  for  an 
extra  bale  by  unrolling  it  and  from  it  improvising 
a  temporary  topsail.  The  cloth  sail  was  never  cut, 
but  on  reaching  its  destination  it  was  rolled  up 
again  and  delivered  to  the  consignee  in  the  origi- 
nal bale  that  the  boatman  had  received  from  the 
shipper. 

A  voyage  on  a  great  waterway  of  China  is 
enough  to  convince  anyone  that  there  is  consider- 
able foundation  for  the  Chinese  argument  against 
a  change  to  improved  methods  of  transportation. 
The  crude  and  unwieldy  junks  on  the  Han  River 
must  afford  a  means  of  livelihood  to  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  families.  Were  the  river  to  be 
dredged  so  as  to  be  navigable  for  steamers,  or  were 
it  to  be  paralleled  by  a  railroad,  all  of  the  men  who 
directly  or  indirectly  make  a  living  from  the  junks 

304 


m 

■ 

i 

H^ 

H- 

f 

■^— 

i  I^^^^^^^^^^^H^  1 

1  i 

i^H 

Ih ' 

^ 

1 

t 

■ 

THROUGH    HUPEH    IN   A   JUNK 

would  be  thrown  out  of  work.  In  any  other  coun- 
try in  the  world,  there  might  be  a  chance  of  their 
finding  employment  in  some  other  trade  or  busi- 
ness, but  this  is  impossible  in  China,  for  the  reason 
that  the  division  of  labour  is  hxed  and  permanent. 
There  is  no  shifting  of  the  centres  of  population  or 
the  opening  of  new  avenues  of  industry. 

From  birth  to  death  every  Chinese  moves  along 
a  path  which  his  fathers  trod  before  him.  So  long 
as  he  is  allowed  to  remain  in  that  particular  path  he 
will  never  be  idle  or  in  want,  but  if  he  be  forced  out 
of  it  there  is  no  alternative  for  him  but  to  starve  or 
to  become  a  vagabond  or  a  Boxer.  The  prospect  of 
thousands  of  boatmen  permanently  unemployed  is 
enough  to  make  a  government  far  less  conservative 
than  that  of  China  hesitate  before  inaugurating 
river  improvements  that  would  precipitate  such  a 
calamity.  It  is  significant  that  the  Boxer  fury  first 
manifested  itself  in  the  neighborhood  of  Tientsin 
and  Pekin,  where  a  short  railroad  to  the  coast  had 
to  a  large  extent  destroyed  the  business  of  the 
junks  that  for  ages  had  carried  freight  up  and 
down  the  Pei  Ho  River.  Almost  without  excep- 
tion, the  former  boatmen  were  Boxers. 

From  La  Ho  Kieu  to  Hankow  the  Han  is 
patrolled  by  a  succession  of  war  junks,  whose  busi- 
ness it  is  to  prevent  smuggling  and  to  suppress  the 
river-pirates  who  now  and  then  steal  out  at  night 
and  rob  fleets  of  freight-boats  anchored  near  the 
shore.     Accustomed  as  I  was  by  this  time  to  the 

305 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

appearance  of  slovenliness  and  neglect  that  char- 
acterised everything  belonging  to  the  government, 
the  neatness  and  trim  beauty  of  the  war  junks  was 
a  pleasant  surprise.  They  are  by  far  the  swiftest 
and  triggest  craft  on  the  river.  Although  built 
after  the  model  of  an  ordinary  junk,  their  lines  are 
exceptionally  graceful.  The  gunwale  dips  amid- 
ships, the  prow  is  lower,  and  the  stern  overhang  is 
less  ungainly  than  in  other  boats. 

A  war  junk  is  manned  by  a  crew  of  about 
twenty  soldiers,  who  work  the  long  oars.  Soldiers 
of  the  junks  pride  themselves  on  the  beauty  of  their 
uniforms.  Their  tunics  are  always  of  the  gayest 
colours,  pink  or  green  or  purple,  embroidered  in 
white  or  yellow  braid.  In  a  small  cabin  over  the 
stern  are  the  quarters  of  the  captain,  who  has  the 
rank  of  major  in  the  Chinese  army.  But  the 
strangest  thing  about  a  war  junk  is  its  immacu- 
late cleanliness,  so  completely  at  variance  with  the 
country  of  its  environment.  Every  morning  and 
evening  the  deck  is  washed  and  scrubbed,  and  the 
crew  spend  most  of  their  leisure  hours  in  painting 
their  craft  with  a  kind  of  shellac  that  prevents  its 
exterior  from  ever  looking  dirty  or  stained.  The 
most  beautiful  sight  on  the  Han  River  is  a  war  junk 
cutting  through  the  muddy  water  with  twenty  sol- 
diers at  the  oars,  their  backs  rising  and  falling  in  uni- 
son. Because  I  possessed  a  little  piece  of  red  paper 
inscribed  with  Prince  Ching's  name,  we  were  accom- 
panied  down  the  river  by  a  succession  of  war  junks. 

306 


THROUGH    HUPEH    IN   A  JUNK 

As  each  of  them  left  us  at  the  end  of  its  line  of 
patrol  a  diminutive  brass  cannon  on  the  bow  would 
be  fired  three  times  as  a  salute ;  this  would  be  an- 
swered by  the  same  number  of  shots  from  the  reliev- 
ing junk  that  was  to  accompany  us  for  the  next 
stage  of  the  journey. 

At  night  the  crew  of  the  war  junk  anchored 
alongside  of  us,  manifested  interest  in  our  safety  in 
accordance  with  Chinese  methods  by  beating  a  drum 
once  in  every  hour  during  the  night.  Although  this 
process  made  sleep  impossible,  it  seemed  to  me  base 
ingratitude  to  tell  the  captains  that  I  disliked  the 
noise  that  their  men  were  kind  enough  to  make  for 
my  protection.  I  explained  to  them  that  I  fully  ap- 
preciated the  honour  conferred  upon  me  by  the  din 
of  the  junk's  drum,  but  that  I  felt  so  secure  with  their 
brave  men  near  me  that  I  believed  I  could  dispense 
with  it  in  order  that  the  crew  of  the  war  junk  might 
sleep  instead  of  keeping  awake  for  the  purpose  of 
making  a  noise.  This  expedient  for  stopping  the 
nightly  drum-beating  worked  admirably.  The  war- 
junk  captains  always  thanked  me  for  my  considera- 
tion of  their  men  and  allowed  no  sound  to  break 
the  stillness  of  the  night  more  strenuous  than  the 
ripple  of  the  current  around  the  prow. 

On  the  opposite  banks  of  a  bend  in  the  river, 
fifty  miles  south  of  La  Ho  Kieu,  are  the  Shen  cities 
of  Fan  Ching  and  Siang  Yang.  They  are  now 
only  sleepy,  old  river-towns  with  crumbling  walls 
and  dilapidated  wharves,  but  there  was  a  time,  seven 

307 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

hundred  years  ago,  when  they  successfully  defied 
the  besieging  armies  of  Kublai  Khan.  All  the 
country  to  the  northward  had  been  conquered  by 
the  Mongols,  but  for  two  years  the  Chinese  gar- 
risons of  Fan  Ching  and  Siang  Yang  held  the  way 
to  the  capital  in  Kai  Feng.  Again  and  again  Kub- 
lai's  soldiers  attempted  to  scale  the  walls  and  were 
as  often  driven  back.  In  despair  at  ever  taking  the 
two  stubborn  cities,  Kublai  sent  to  his  nephew  in 
Persia  for  cannon  of  an  improved  pattern. 

By  means  of  the  huge  missiles  that  these  new 
war  engines  hurled  at  the  walls  of  Fan  Ching  a 
breach  was  made  that  permitted  the  Mongols  to 
enter.  Unable  to  continue  the  fight  alone,  Siang 
Yang  surrendered.  The  heroism  of  the  garrisons 
had  so  won  the  admiration  of  the  Mongols  that 
Kublai  spared  their  lives  and  took  them  all  into  his 
own  service.  With  the  fall  of  Fan  Ching  and  Siang 
Yang  the  last  hope  of  saving  China  from  the  Tar- 
tars failed.  Within  a  year  afterward,  Kublai  Khan 
was  proclaimed  in  Pekin  Emperor  of  China  and 
Mongolia. 

Fan  Ching  to-day  has  a  large  market  and  con- 
tains a  few  silk  factories,  but  Siang  Yang  lives 
largely  upon  its  memories.  Because  of  its  traditions 
it  is  a  favourite  place  of  residence  for  aged  man- 
darins, who  have  retired  from  active  life  with  snug 
fortunes  accumulated  by  years  of  "  squeezing."  The 
space  within  its  walls  is  divided  into  gardens  sur- 
rounding the  villas  of   its  residents.    Throughout 

308 


THROUGH    HUPEH    IN   A  JUNK 

China  Siang  Yang  is  renowned  for  the  glory  of  its 
past  and  the  exclusiveness  of  its  present. 

Early  one  morning,  opposite  to  the  village  of 
Yo  Kia,  we  discovered  a  tugboat — by  courtesy 
called  a  steamer.  It  was  owned  by  a  Chinese  com- 
pany in  Hankow  who  make  a  business  of  carry- 
ing passengers  and  the  mails  up  the  river.  We 
hailed  the  steamer  and  climbed  aboard,  piling  all 
our  blankets  and  pookas  in  a  huge  heap  in  the 
centre  of  the  deck  in  the  midst  of  the  Chinese  pas- 
sengers. We  asked  the  young  captain  at  what 
hour  he  expected  to  reach  Hankow.  "  About  mid- 
night," he  replied.  As  the  distance  was  only  about 
seventy  miles,  and  the  dirty  tug  made  about  nine 
knots  an  hour,  we  were  for  a  time  at  a  loss  to 
understand  why  sixteen  hours  should  be  necessary 
for  the  journey,  but  the  reason  became  apparent  in 
the  course  of  the  afternoon  when  we  anchored  in 
front  of  a  town  where  a  dragon  flag  on  the  top  of  the 
bluff  proclaimed  the  existence  of  a  li-king  station. 

Li-king  is  the  abominable  internal  revenue  toll 
which  all  Chinese  boats  must  pay  at  intervals  in 
passing  up  and  down  rivers  of  the  Empire.  The 
li-king  tax  is  supposed  to  go  to  the  general  gov- 
ernment, but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  most  of  it  is  ap- 
propriated by  the  mandarins  in  whose  districts  the 
stations  happen  to  be.  In  front  of  the  li-king  station 
the  fires  of  our  steamer  were  allowed  to  go  down 
and  preparations  were  made  for  a  long  wait.  The 
amount  of  li-king  which  our  captain  had  to  pay  was 

309 


THROUGH    HIDDEN   SHENSI 

only  2,000  cash  (about  $1.40),  but  he  explained  that 
the  official  in  charge  of  the  station  was  a  "  mean  " 
man  who  did  not  like  the  idea  of  steamboats  sup- 
planting junks  in  the  carrying  trade.  "  Just  to 
make  trouble  for  us,"  the  captain  said,  "  the  li- 
king man  usually  detains  me  for  two  or  three 
hours  before  he  will  receive  my  money  and  let  me 
go  on  again."  At  Mr.  Duncan's  suggestion  I  gave 
Prince  Ching's  card  to  the  captain  and  told  him  to 
show  it  to  the  "  mean  "  man  in  offering  to  pay  his 
li-king. 

Within  ten  minutes  after  he  had  left  the  boat, 
the  captain  came  running  down  the  path  from  the 
station,  his  face  overspread  with  smiles.  He  at 
once  gave  orders  to  heave  anchor  and  start  again. 
He  told  us  what  had  happened  at  the  station. 
"  When  I  showed  Prince  Ching's  card  to  the  mean 
man,"  he  explained,  "  he  asked  where  I  got  it.  I 
replied  that  it  belonged  to  a  passenger  on  the 
steamer.  *  If  you  do  not  start  within  fifteen  min- 
utes,' said  the  mean  man  to  me,  'I  will  have  you 
bambooed.  Don't  you  have  sense  enough  not  to 
delay  a  man  who  carries  His  Highness'  card.  Get 
out  quick  and  don't  stand  around  here.'"  The  cap- 
tain's gratitude  to  us  for  helping  him  to  get  the 
better  of  the  "mean"  man  knew  no  bounds.  Af- 
ter passing  the  li-king  station  he  gave  us  special 
privileges  on  the  tug.  We  were  allowed  the  ex- 
clusive use  of  the  dirty  cabin  aft  of  the  engine,  all 
the  first-class  Chinese  passengers  being  driven  on 

310 


THROUGH    HUPEH    IN   A  JUNK 

deck,  and  a  boy,  whose  face,  I  am  sure,  had  not 
been  washed  for  a  month,  was  detailed  to  bring  us 
cups  of  tea  at  intervals  of  every  half-hour. 

The  li-king  station  was  the  last  place  where 
Prince  Ching's  card  was  of  service  to  me.  About 
nine  o'clock  in  that  evening,  twenty-one  days  after 
leaving  Sian,  our  steamer  dropped  anchor  off  the 
Chinese  quarter  of  Hankow.  We  loaded  our  be- 
longings into  three  san  pans  and  were  slowly  sculled 
through  a  press  of  junks  into  the  broad,  dark  Yang 
tse.  An  hour  later  the  square  bows  grated  on  the 
stone  coping  of  the  embankment  that  leads  from 
the  Bund  down  to  the  water's  edge.  Above  us 
were  the  electric  lights  and  high,  stone  buildings 
of  the  foreign  concession.  Wang  and  I  were  left 
alone  in  our  san  pan  while  the  rest  of  the  party  went 
ashore  to  find  porters  to  carry  our  luggage  to  the 
hotel.  It  was  ten  o'clock,  on  a  starlight,  crisp, 
December  evening.  The  Bund  was  silent,  save 
for  the  occasional  rattle  of  a  rickshaw  carrying  a 
lingerer  from  the  club  to  his  home.  On  a  bench 
at  the  top  of  the  embankment  two  men  were  sit- 
ting. They  had  apparently  dined  late  and  together. 
Their  conversation,  as  it  floated  down  to  where  we 
lay  in  our  san  pan  on  piles  of  pookas,  was  some- 
thing like  this  : 

"  And  his  luck  had  such  a  run,"  said  one  of 
the  men.  "Three  jackpots — took  them  all  in. 
It's  always  the  way  with  that  chap  when  he's 
drunk.     Why,  he  never  holds  anything  better  than 

311 


THROUGH    HIDDEN    SHENSI 

nine  spots  when  he's  sober,  but  he  was  drunk 
to-night — ha,  ha,  loaded  to  the  guards.  During 
the  last  deal  his  boy  had  to  steady  him  to  keep 
him  from  falling  off  his  chair — and  game — never 
moved  an  eyelash  when  he  called  that  straight 
flush.     Superb,  wasn't  it  ?  " 

"Good  thing,  anyway,"  replied  the  other  man. 
"  He  needed  a  turn.  He  lost  quite  a  bit  when 
Golden  Pheasant  ran  third  at  Shanghai  last  month. 
Great  Scotch  that,  to-night.  I  understand  it  was  a 
special  lot  the  steward  ordered  some  time  ago — 
came  in  only  yesterday  on  the  Jardine.  By  the 
way,  young  Chumpkins  wasn't  in  his  corner  this 
evening.  He  seldom  misses  a  game — wonder  where 
he  was." 

"  Oh,  girl  I  fancy.  I  heard  to-day  his  engage- 
ment will  be  announced  soon." 

"  Guffenbach's  daughter  ?  " 

"  Yes.     Just  a  rumour." 

"  Jolly  good  for  Chumpkins.  She's  an  only 
child.  Guffenbach's  getting  pretty  well  along  in 
years,  but  he  has  one  of  the  clearest  heads  on  the 
river.  Came  into  twenty  thousand  taels  on  his  last 
opium  spec',  you  know." 

I  had  been  so  long  in  the  "  heathen  "  part  of  a 
"  heathen  "  land,  and  I  had  become  so  inured  to  the 
ways  of  "yellow  barbarians,"  that  these  first  familiar 
snatches  of  the  conversation  of  Christian  civilisa- 
tion sounded  strangely  new  and  jarring.  Wang,  in 
the  stern  of  the  san  pan,  was  blinking  at  the  electric 

312 


THROUGH    HUPEH    IN   A   JUNK 


lights.  "The  Europeans  live  in  nice  places,"  he 
said ;  "  the  houses  are  large,  the  streets  are  clean, 
and  the  lamps  are  bright;  but  for  me,  my  master,  it 
is  better  the  kung  kwan  and  the  mandarin  and 
the  lowban  and  the  mountain." 


THE     END 


313 


•ks.  25. 

ed  art, 

;rly  oc- 

^  Tsing- 

^  aces  of 


Shansi, 

768.     Be- 

se  with, 

lance  of, 
Indians, 


ROUTE    OF    THE    AUT 


3    O 


ROUTE    OF    THE    AUTHOr's    JOURNEY    THROUGH     HIC^^^N    SHENSI    AND    OTHER    PARTS    OF    CHI] 


INDEX 


"American  Kung  Kwan,"  dismount- 
ing at  entrance,  i6i.  Placed  at  the 
disposal  of  Mr.  Duncan  by  Native 
Relief  Committee,  236.  Departure 
from,  267. 

Ancestor  worship,  knowledge  and  care 
of  monuments,  part  of,  1:44.  Much 
of,  only  method  of  raising  monu- 
ments to  previous  generations,  251. 

"  A  Thousand  Years,"  form  of  saluta- 
tion to  Emperor,  205.  Equivalent 
of  "Vive,"  205.  Wish  of  Sianese 
for  Empress  Dowager,  257. 

Audiences ;  early  hour  of,  in  court  at 
Sian,  221. 

Bamboo  trees,  in  Hupeh  near  Han 
River,  302. 

Banchaiti(s),  duties  of,  23.  Members 
of  mandarin's  officials  household,  23. 
Fondness  of,  for  imparting  political 
news,  128.  Gossip  of,  about  Imperial 
visitors,  206. 

Banished  criminals,  system  of  punish- 
ment by  exile,  139.  Theory  of  sys- 
tem, 139.     Criminal  exiles  in  Shensi, 

139- 

Banks,  of  Sian  famous  in  China,  171. 
Street  of,  171.  Volume  of  business, 
171.  Age  of,  171.  System  of,  sim- 
ilar to  that  of  United  States,  171. 
Drafts  issued  by,  172.  Interest  on 
commercial  accounts,  172.  Promis- 
sory notes  of,  172.  Weighing  of 
money  in,  172.  Calculations  on 
computing  board,  172.  Simplicity 
of  book-keeping  of,  172.  One  book 
for  all  accounts  of,  173.  Exorbitant 
rate  of  exchange  demanded  by,  in 
transmission  of  American  Relief 
Funds,  238.  Reduction  of  rate  en- 
forced by  Governor,  238. 

Barbarians,  their  similar  attitude  dur- 
ing reigns  of  Wu  How  and  Tsz'  Hi, 


201.  Empress  Dowager  advised  to 
rid  China  of,  222.  Rung  Lu's  lecture 
on,  222. 

Beds,  Chinese,  consist  of  bricks,  25. 
Sleeping  on  them  an  acquired  art, 
25.  Sleeping  on  those  formerly  oc- 
cupied by  Emperor,  206.  In  Tsing- 
ling  Mountains  delightful  places  of 
rest,  275. 

Birds,  silence  of,  in  Han  River  gorges, 
292.  "  Married  Birds,"  292.  With- 
out fear  of  man,  292. 

Boatman  of  Han  River,  strange  men, 
285.  Resemblance  of,  to  North 
American  Indians,  285.  Copper- 
colored  skins  of,  285.  Taciturnity 
of,  286.  Dislike  of,  for  queues,  286. 
Isolated  lives  of,  285.  Pantheism,  re- 
ligion of,  287.  Belief  in  spirits  in 
trees  and  rocks,  287.  Singing  for 
wind,  287.  Songs  of,  at  night,  288. 
Offerings  to  River  Dragon,  288. 
Method  of  dredging  with  wooden 
hoe,  289.  Canoes  lowered  over 
rapids  by,  289.  Their  custom  of 
feeding  birds,  293. 

Boxers,  uprising  of,  said  to  be  due  to 
Prince  Tuan's  influence,  79.  Lead- 
ers of,  in  Sian,  222.  Outbreak  of, 
first  manifested  itself  on  Pei  Ho 
River,  305. 

Bricks,  method  of  making,  in  Chili,  34. 

Bridge(s),  remains  c^.  in  Tsingling,  42. 
Over  rivers  in  Plain  of  Sian,  156. 
Columns  of,  made  of  granite,  157. 

Brigands,  in  Tsingling  Mountains, 
273- 

Camels,  Freight  carriers  of  Shansi, 
68.  Home  of,  in  Mongolia,  68.  Be- 
lief that  drivers  can  converse  with, 
69. 

Canoes  of  Han  River,  resemblance  of, 
to  canoes  of  North  American  Indians, 


315 


3i6 


INDEX 


283.  Peculiar  shape  of,  283.  Di- 
vided into  compartments,  284. 
Buoyancy  of,  284.  Oars  and  poles, 
of,  284.  How  adapted  for  pas- 
sengers, 284.  Crew  and  Lowban 
of,  285.  Embarking  on,  285.  Ar- 
rangements for  meals  on,  285.  Low- 
ering over  rapids,  289.  Wrecks  of, 
by  rapids,  289.  Blockades  of,  290. 
Cabins  of,  darkened  by  high  walls 
of  gorges,  292.     Last  view  of,  300. 

Captain  who  had  travelled,  conversa- 
tion with,  loi. 

Card  of  Prince  Ching,  given  to  author, 
6.  Description  of,  6.  Insignificant 
appearance  of,  6.  Absolute  protec- 
tion by,  to  bearer,  20.  Effect  of,  on 
mandarin's  representative  at  Shou 
Yang,  75.  Impression  produced  by, 
upon  Wei  Wen,  112.  Special  priv- 
ileges conferred  by,  on  Han  River, 
290.  Enabled  by,  to  pass  blockade, 
290.  Escort  of  war-junks  on  Han 
River  secured  by,  306.  Victory  ob- 
tained by,  over  "mean  man,"  310. 

Carts,  Chinese,  description  of,  38. 
Philosophy  of  axle  extensions,  38. 
With  four  wheels  at  Tung  Kwan, 
113.  Discovery  of  example  of  mis- 
take of  generalising  in  Chinese  de- 
scriptions, 113. 

Caves,  dwellings  in  Shansi  Mountains, 
67.  Refuges  from  spring  freshets, 
67.  Dug  by  famine  sufferers  near 
Sian,  231.  In  Tsingling  Mountains 
places  of  refuge  for  entire  com- 
munities, 280.  In  a  bluff  overlook- 
ing Han  River,  280.  Habit  of  dig- 
ging peculiar  to  Shensi,  280.  Farm- 
houses in  Sian  Plain,  280.  Sugges- 
tion of  resemblance  to  North  Ameri- 
can Cliff  Dwellers,  281. 

Chang  Sun,  wife  of  Emperor  Tai 
Tsung,  199.  Exceptional  virtues  of, 
199.     Dying  request  of,  199. 

Character  and  traits,  Chinese,  false 
ideas  regarding,  19.  Fatalism  of, 
exemplified  by  Tsingling  bridge,  42. 
Sense  of  beauty  of  designer  of  stone 
curtain,  53.  Willingness  to  receive 
punishment,  71.  Racial  differences 
in ,  85.  Refutation  of  usual  belief  con- 
cerning, 85.     Upward  soul-groping 


exemplified  by  adoration  of  Sacred 
Mountains,  ii8.  Love  for  children, 
132.  Missionary  declaration  of  lack 
of  sense  of  beauty  in,  152.  Apprecia- 
tion of  beauty  illustrated  by  Lintoun, 
154.  Peculiarity  of,  shown  by  man- 
darin of  Lintoun,  156.  Ability  to 
forget  suffering,  249.  Repressed 
fires  of,  and  their  possibilities,  252. 
Ability  to  wait  patiently  illustrated 
on  Han  River,  290.  Ingenuity  of, 
shown  in  stowing  freight,  304.  Chi- 
nese remain  in  path  followed  by 
fathers ;  new  avenues  of  industry 
impossible,  305. 

Charitable  Societies,  contributions  of 
for  relief  of  famine  in  Shensi,  232. 

Chen  Men  Gate,  in  Pekin,  starting 
point  for  Shensi,  8. 

Chenting,  former  headquarters  of 
French  Army  in  Chili,  36. 

Chien  Chung,  Emperor,  reference  to, 
on  Nestorian  Tablet,  263. 

Children,  love  of,  for  parents  most 
beautiful  trait  in  Chinese  character, 
132.     Only  joy  of  monotonous  lives, 

132.  Treated  as  companions  by 
parents,    133.      Seldom     punished, 

133.  Filial  piety  founded  on  natu- 
ral love,  133.  Joy  of  living  of,  133. 
Padlocks  worn  by,  to  keep  away 
evil  spirits,  134.  Called  by  names 
of  animals,  134.  Foot-binding  of 
girls,  134.  Sale  of,  in  Shensi  fam- 
ine, 232.  Constant  market  for,  232, 
Sale  of  girls  for  domestic  service, 
233.  Mencius'  injunctions  against 
childlessness,  233.  Parents'  intense 
love  for,  233.  Speculating  in,  during 
Shensi  famine,  234.  Famine  prices 
of,  234. 

Chinese  Exclusion  Act,  comment  on, 
at  dinner  in  Sian,  198.  Shensi  view 
of,  198. 

Ching,  Prince,  description  of,  5.  Fore- 
most figure  in  Chinese  Govern- 
ment, 5.  Uncle  of  Emperor,  5. 
Taking  photograph  of,  7. 

Chopsticks,  appropriate  for  historical 
food,  27.  Art  of  eating  with,  easily 
acquired,  160. 

Chou  dynasty,  first  Chinese  arithme- 
tic appeared  during,  29. 


INDEX 


317 


Chou  Fu,  Fantai  of  Paoting,  18.  Gives 
final  credentials  and  escort,  18. 
Advice  of,  18. 

Christian  Herald,  absence  of  creed  or 
race  distinction  in  distribution  of  re- 
lief funds  raised  by,  240. 

Chrysanthemums,  Tablet  of,  in  Hall  of 
Tablets,  Sian,  258. 

Chung  or  Shih  Hwang  ti,  Emperor, 
Napoleon  of  China,  163.  Reign  in 
Sian,  163.  Built  great  wall,  163. 
Palace  of,  at  Hein  Yang,  163.  Grave 
of,  at  Lintoun,  163.  Site  of  palace 
of,  in  Sian,  167.  Bricks  alleged  to 
be  from  palace  of,  167.  Destroyed 
books  of  Confucius,  257. 

Chwang  Lieh  Ti,  Emperor,  suicide  of, 
165. 

Climate  of  Chili,  similar  to  Northern 
Illinois,  31. 

Clubs  of  Sian,  exclusive  membership 
of,  176.  "  Clubs  "  of  the  provinces, 
176. 

Coal,  found  in  Chili  and  Shansi,  39. 
Finest  kind  of  anthracite,  39.  Crude 
methods  of  mining  and  transporta- 
tion of,  39.  Brought  from  Shansi 
to  Sian,  175. 

Commerce,  internal,  of  China,  some 
idea  of  magnitude  obtained  by 
number  of  freight  boats  on  Han 
River,  303. 

Confucius,  thirteen  classics  of,  in  Hall 
of  Tablets,  256. 

Conversation  of  Christian  civilization 
in  Hankow,  312. 

Cooks  of  exiled  court.  Conflagration 
in  kitchen  of,  218.   Beheading  of,  218. 

Cotton,  cultivated  in  colder  parts  of 
China,  31.  Cultivation  of,  in  coun- 
try north  of  Wei  Ho,  247.  Spinners 
of,  who  had  survived  famine,  247. 
Earnings  of  spinner  in  Shensi,  247. 
Bobbins  from  United  States,  247. 
American  thread  cheaper  than  na- 
tive, 248.  Spinner's  explanation  of 
cheapness  of  American  thread,  248. 
San  Yuan  centre  of  trade  in,  249. 
Imported  in  bales  from  the  United 
States,  249.  With  American  labels 
carried  by  camel  caravan,  250. 

Couriers,  Imperial,  73.  Duties  of,  73. 
Picturesque  appearance  of,  73.  Man- 
ner of  riding,  73. 


Cross,  at  top  of  Nestorian  Tablet, 
262.  Difficulty  of  obtaining  impres- 
sion of,  264.  Sole  survival  of  Nes- 
torian religion,  265. 

'■  Cumshaw,"  Tips  as  perquisites  to 
soldiers  and  servants,  27. 

Decimals,  long  use  of,  by  Chinese,  28. 

De  Quincey,  comment  of,  on  China, 
166. 

Dinners  in  Sian,  given  only  for  men, 
178.  Serious  discussion  at,  178. 
Author's  experience  as  guest  at,  196. 
Deportment  of  hosts  of,  their  good 
manners,  197.  Conversation  at,  197. 
Comment  at,  on  Chinese  Exclusion 
Act,  198. 

Dogs,  in  Tsingling  Mountains,  276. 
Resemblance  of,  to  wolves,  276. 
Kindliness  of,  276. 

Donkeys,  means  of  travelling  on  road 
to  Tai  Yuan,  39.  Confusion  created 
by,  in  Imperial  baggage-train,  225. 

Duff,  Mr.,  communication  of,  regard- 
ing opium,  62. 

Duncan,  Moir  R. ,  on  the  way  to  his 
residence,  159.  In  charge  of  Amer- 
ican famine  relief  funds,  259.  Meet- 
ing with,  161.  Arrival  of,  in  Sian, 
185.  Compelled  to  hide  in  cart, 
185.  Liked  by  native  officials,  185. 
Public  debates  held  by,  186.  Book- 
store of,  186.  Personal  popularity 
of,  186.  Friend  of  Governor  of 
Shensi,  186.  Plan  of,  for  irrigating 
arid  lands,  186.  Expelled  at  begin- 
ning of  Boxer  outbreak,  186.  Ova- 
tion to,  on  return,  186.  Advice  of, 
sought  by  mandarins,  186.  Life  of, 
an  exemplification  of  Golden  Rule, 
188.  American  famine  money 
brought  by,  236.  Work  of,  approved 
by  Empress  Dowager,  236.  Given 
"American  kung  kwan  "  by  native 
relief  committee,  236.  Distribution 
of  famine  relief  fund  supervised  by, 
237.  His  belief  in,  and  liking  for, 
Chinese,  237.  Farewell  of  Gov- 
ernor to,  carried  by  mandarin,  268. 
Prescription  of,  for  fever,  295. 

Eagle,  unsuccessful  attempt  to  kill, 
100.  Five-minute  search  for  a  car- 
tridge, 100. 


3i8 


INDEX 


Eclipse  of  the  moon,  Belief  that  cause 
is  eating  of  moon  by  dragon,  82. 
Pandemonium  because  of,  82.  At- 
tempts to  scare  dragon  away,  82. 
Explanation  of,  by  missionary,  83. 
Wang's  comprehension  of  scientific 
cause  of,  83.  Wang's  belief  in  sa- 
tiety of  dragon,  83. 

Edicts,  Imperial,  military  colleges  es- 
tablished in  accordance  with,  103. 
News  furnished  by,  to  Shensi  villa- 
gers, 128.  Transmitted  over  Im- 
perial Telegraph,  174.  Emanate 
from  capital,  223.  Character  of  in- 
formation contained  in,  223.  Substi- 
tute for  newspapers,  223.  Bound  in 
magazine  form,  223.  Copies  of,  scat- 
tered about  palace  in  Sian,  224. 
Order  for  "  New  Learning"  issued 
by  Empress  Dowager,  269. 

Eight  permutations,  discovered  by 
Fuhi,  122. 

Emperor  of  China,  KwangSu;  Temple 
at  Ping  Yang  rebuilt  by,  93.  Less 
feared  in  Shensi  than  Governor,  189. 
Reception  by,  of  Princess  in  Sian 
Palace,  216.  Yielded  left  wing  of 
palace  to  Empress  Dowager,  218. 

"  Emperor  of  Peace,"  Ping  ti,  164. 

Empress  Dowager,  Tsz'  Hi,  use  by, 
of  Imperial  Telegraph,  175.  Sian 
centre  of  anti-foreign  party  during 
stay  of,  187.  First  woman  on  throne 
of  China  since  Wu  How,  200.  Their 
careers  compared,  200.  Necessity 
for,  to  rule  more  forcefully  than  a 
man,  201.  Slandered  by  her  ene- 
mies, 201.  Punishments  of  her 
enemies,  201.  Beloved  for  cruelties 
and  faults,  201.  Retired  to  Sian 
during  triumph  of  barbarians,  202. 
Unmolested  after  fall  of  Pekin,  202. 
Dominating  personality  of,  206.  Dis- 
like by,  of  Boxer  fanaticism,  206. 
Receives  address  of  Boxer  of  Kie- 
hiu,  206.  Boxer  beheaded  by  order 
of,  207.  Resemblance  of,  to  "  Queen 
of  Wonderland,"  207.  Sentiments  of 
her  subjects  toward,  208.  "  Peace  " 
maintained  by,  208.  Place  of  honour 
for,  at  Sian  receptions,  217.  Left 
wing  of  palace  occupied  by,  217. 
Rage  of,   at    architects,  217.     Dis- 


missal by,  of  Ta-a-ko,  220.  Verdict 
of  Sheng  sustained  by,  221.  Ad- 
vised to  expel  foreigners  from  China, 
222.  Wrath  of,  kindled  against 
Sheng,  225.  Pardon  of  Sheng  by, 
226.  Manchu  Princes  rebuked  by, 
226.  Distressed  condition  of  Shen- 
si on  arrival  of,  226.  "Peace"  re- 
stored in  Shensi  by,  227.  "Jezebel 
of  China,"  227.  "A  Thousand 
Years,"  the  wish  of  Sianese  for,  227. 
Arrival  of,  with  court  dreaded  in 
Sian,  234.  Government  caravans 
instituted  by,  234.  Study  of  famine 
conditions  by,  234.  Riddle  of  cash 
and  taels  proposed  by,  235.  Dis- 
honest mandarins  beheaded  by,  235, 
Edict  of  introducing  ''  New  Learn- 
ing," 269. 
Exile  of  Emperor  and  Empress  Dow- 
ager, incorrect  to  call  flight,  202. 
Departure  from  Pekin,  202.  The 
rest  near  Kalgan,  202.  Orders  to 
mandarins,  202.  Official  announce- 
ment concerning,  203.  Leaving  a 
profaned  capital,  203.  View  of,  held 
in  Shensi,  203.  Invincibility  of 
China,  203.  Activity  of  preparations 
for,  204.  Tediousness  of  journey, 
204.  Repairing  highways  and  kung 
kwans,  204.  Assembling  of  the  court 
at  Kalgan,  204.  Imperial  worship 
in  temples,  205.  Journey  to  Tai 
Yuan,  205.  Same  route  followed 
by  author,  205.  Interest  aroused  by, 
in  Shensi  towns,  205.  Welcome  of 
"A  Thousand  Years,"  205.  Crush- 
ing remnants  of  Boxer  fanaticism, 

206.  Fate  of  the  Boxer  of  Kiehiu, 

207.  Putting  a  stop  to  "squeeze," 
207.  Wholesale  beheadings,  207. 
Efforts  of  Empress  Dowager  to  main- 
tain "  Peace,"  208.  Fate  of  Imperial 
cooks,  218.  Character  and  career 
in  Sian  of  Ta-a-ko,  219.  Down- 
fall of  Ta-a-ko,  220.  Experience  of 
Manchu  Princess  with  Sheng,  220. 
Early  morning  audiences,  221.  Box- 
er leaders  in  Sian,  222.  Rung  Lu's 
lecture  on  barbarians,  222.  Depart- 
ure from  Sian,  224.  Necessity  of 
leaving  by  West  Gate,  224.  Sianese 
allowed  to  gaze  on  sovereigns,  224. 


INDEX 


3^9 


Orde  of  recessional,  224.  Appoint- 
ment of  Sheng  to  manage  baggage 
train,  225.  Plot  against  Sheng  by 
Manchu  Princess,  225. 

Famine  in  Shensi,  reasons  why  famine 
in  Shansi  is  not  so  severe  as,  109. 
Discussion  of,  with  Governor,  192. 
Isolation  of  province  makes  it  diffi- 
cult to  obtain  food  from  distance,  228. 
Death  from,  of  thirty  per  cent,  of 
population,  228.  Americans  princi- 
pal contributors  to  relief  fund,  228. 
Drought  the  cause,  228.  Former 
famines,  229.  Flight  of  Yang  Kien 
and  court,  229.  Disappearance  of 
rivers  from  drought,  230.  Rise  of 
prices  of  food,  230.  Flocking  of  vil- 
lagers to  Sian,  230.  Caves  dug  by 
hunger  victims,  231.  Burying  the 
dead,  231.  Famine  disease,  231. 
Eating  human  flesh,  231.  Relief 
committee  appointed  by  Tuan  Fang, 

231.  Opening  soup  kitchens,  231. 
Contributions  of  money  from  native 
sources,   232.      Selling   of  degrees, 

232.  Villagers  eating  cats  and  dogs, 
232.  Children  sold,  232.  Prices  of 
boys  and  girls,  234.  Arrival  of  Em- 
press Dowager  dreaded,  234.  Gov- 
ernment caravans,  234.  Empress 
Dowager's  study  of  conditions,  234, 
"  Squeezing  "  of  famine  funds,  235. 
Riddle  of  taels  and  cash,  235.  Be- 
heading of  dishonest  mandarins,  235. 
Fall  of  rain,  235.  End  of,  235.  Ar- 
rival of  Mr.  Duncan  with  American 
relief  funds,  236.  Native  famine 
lists,  basis  of  distribution,  236.  Na- 
tive lists  of  sufferers  from,  237.  Ref- 
erences to  women  and  children  as 
"  Mouths,"  237.  Essentially  Chinese 
character  of  places  where  distribu- 
tions took  place,  237.  Distribution 
of  relief  managed  by  mandarins,  237. 
Absence  of  prejudice  against  foreign- 
ers in  distribution  of  American  re- 
lief funds,  238.  Difficulty  of  trans- 
porting cash  strings,  238.  Feeding 
3,000  in  court-yard  of  Temple  of  Five 
Sacred  Mountains,  239.  Gratitude 
of  recipients  of  American  famine  re- 
lief money,  240.     No  distinction  of 


race  or  creed,  240.  No  human  be- 
ings in  Plain  of  Sian,  242.  Starva- 
tion in  San  Yuan,  248.  Burying  dead 
in  embankment  outside  San  Yuan 
wall,  248. 

Fan  Ching,  on  Han  River  in  Hupeh, 
307.  Withstood  siege  of  Kublai 
Khan,  308.  Taken  by  siege  guns 
brought  from  Persia,  308.  Market 
and  silk  factories  of,  308. 

Fen  Hoa  River,  tributary  of  Yellow 
River,  97.     Pagodas  in  valley  of,  97. 

Ferries,  crossing  Yellow  River  on,  iii. 
Difficulties  of,  iii.  Crowded  quar- 
ters on.  III. 

Flourishes,  Chinese  habit  of  making, 
254.     Interpretation  of  soul,  254. 

Fonging,  System  of  liberating  animals, 
119.  Based  on  idea  of  reincarna- 
tion, 119.  Setting  fish  at  liberty,  119, 

Food,  Chinese,  based  upon  hygienic 
principles,  26. 

Foot-binding,  begun  when  girl  is  eight 
years  old,  134.  Custom  of,  universal 
in  Shensi.  Failure  to  observe  cus- 
tom disgrace  to  women.  Mothers 
cannot  be  accused  of  cruelty  for 
persisting  in,  135. 

"Four  Hundred,"  residences  of,  in 
Sian,  175.  Sandal  wood  furniture 
of,  175.  Fondness  of,  for  porcelain 
collecting,  175.  System  of  heating 
houses  of.  75. 

Fuhi,  starting  for  land  of,  9.  Legen- 
dary character  of,  162.  Discovery  of 
scroll  and  "eight  permutations," 
162.  Born  near  Sian,  162.  Anec- 
dotes of,  in  Sian,  166.  Temple  of, 
marking  birthplace,  268. 

Funerals,  procession  at,  138.  Enjoy- 
ment of  villagers  in,  138.  Howling 
of  widows  at,  138.  White  color  of 
mourning,  138.  Devoid  of  melan- 
choly, 137.  Providing  money  and 
horses  for  spirit  world,  137. 

Furs,  Sian  centre  of  trade  in,  171.  Low 
price  of,  in  Sian,  171. 

Fu  Shin,  village  of  Shensi,  inn  of,  120. 

Gambling,  Chinese  fondness  for,  i8a 
Suppression  of,  in  Sian,  180. 

Genghis  Khan,  campaign  of,  in  Shansi, 
98.   Failure  to  subdue  old  provinces, 


320 


INDEX 


98.  Death  of,  at  Luh-pan,  98.  Un- 
able to  take  Tung  Kwan,  109.  San- 
kau-pa-tu  sent  by,  to  take  Kai 
Feng,  no. 

Gorges  of  Han  River  in  Tsingling 
Mountains,  277.  Precipitious  sides 
of,  277.  Precipices  and  ledges  along- 
side of,  277.  Narrowness  of,  289. 
Different  from  anything  else  in 
China,  291.  Lovely  interim  between 
north  and  south,  291.  Natural  beau- 
ties of,  291.  Restfulness  of,  291. 
Diversity  in  fancies  of  current,  291. 
Sheer  and  abrupt  walls  of,  292. 
Varying  tints  of  verdure  of,  292. 
Beauties  of,  292.  Charm  of,  at  night, 
293.  Stories  around  incense  fire,  293. 

Governor  of  Shensi,  his  residence  in 
Sian,  168.  Li  Shao  Fen,  188.  Awe 
which  he  inspired  in  subjects,  188. 
Seriousness  of  audiences  with,  189. 
Granted  an  audience  by,  189.  Call- 
ing at  residence  of,  189.  Waiting 
in  court-yard  of,  189.  Theatrical 
opening  of  doors  of  residence,  190. 
Welcomed  by  secretary  of,  190.  Sa- 
luted by  soldiers  of,  190.  Appear- 
ance of,  190.  Anglo-Saxon  manner 
of,  191.  Interview  with,  191.  Un- 
able to  distinguish  between  Ameri- 
cans and  English,  191.  Discussing 
famine  conditions  with,  192.  Sug- 
gestion to,  of  necessity  of  railroads, 
192.  Objections  of,  to  railroads,  193. 
His  call,  194.  His  escort,  194.  His 
knowledge  of  his  province,  194.  His 
comments  on  missionaries,  195.  In- 
terest of,  in  map  of  China,  195.  Ideas 
of,  on  location  of  United  States,  195. 
Belief  of,  that  world  was  flat,  196. 
Deference  of,  to  "  Barbarian  igno- 
rance," 196.  Not  a  Philistine,  196. 
A  gentleman,  196.  Reduction  of 
rate  of  exchange  enforced  by,  268. 
Mandarin  sent  by,  to  bid  farewell  to 
Mr.  Duncan,  268. 

Governors  of  provinces,  practically 
kings,  143.  Liability  to  removal  or 
suicide  order,  143.  Absolute  power 
of,  143.  Duty  to  repel  invasion  and 
suppress  rebellions,  143.  Liability 
of,  to  "  lose  face"  on  failure  to  sup- 
press rebellion,  144. 


Granite,  blocks  in  pavement  of  road, 
40.  Ruts  worn  in,  by  ancient  cart 
travel,  40.  Bridge,  pillars  of,  in 
Sian  Plain,  157. 

Great  Wall,  remnant  of,  in  Shensi,  44. 
Disappointing  debris  of,  44.  Phi- 
losophy of  the  brick-heaps,  44. 

Hall  of  Tablets,  Confucian  classics  set 
up  in,  163.  In  southeastern  part  of 
Sian,  255.  Oldest  collection  of  tab- 
lets, 255.  Rebuilt  by  Han  dynasty, 
255.  Thirteen  classics  of  Confucius 
in,  256.  Memorials  of  early  kings 
and  sages  in,  256.  Gave  sugges- 
tions for  Hall  of  Mings  in  Pekin,  256. 
Tablets  of  especial  merit  contained 
in,  256.  Charm  of,  257.  Visit  of 
author  to,  257.  Subdued  demeanor 
of  visitors,  257.  Awe  inspired  by 
age  and  beauty  of,  257.  Tablet  of 
chrysanthemums  in,  258. 

Han  Dynasty,  reigned  in  Sian,  163. 
Elizabethan  age  of  China,  163.  Pa- 
trons of  arts  and  letters,  163.  Vic- 
tories of  armies  of,  163.  Rebuilt 
Hall  of  Tablets,  255. 

Hankow,  end  of  journey  at,  311.  Em- 
barking in  san  pans,  311.  Bund  of, 
311.  Two  diners  of,  311.  Conver- 
sation overheard  in,  311. 

Han  River,  head  of  Navigation,  on 
Lung  Ku  Chai,  267.  Rise  of,  in 
Tsingling  Mountains,  268.  Discov- 
ery of  spring  at  one  of  sources  of, 
276.  Watching  incipient  stream  down 
mountain-side  at  source  of,  277. 
Gorges  of,  277.  Shallowness  of, 
near  Lung  Ku  Chai,  283.  Never 
dredged,  283.  Canoes  of,  283.  Boat- 
men of,  289.  Slow  progress  on,  289. 
Rapids  in,  289.  Special  privileges 
on,  conferred  by  Prince  Ching's  card, 
290.  Passing  blockades  on,  290. 
An  attack  of  fever  during  voyage  on, 
294.  Broadening  of,  297.  Become 
commercial  at  La  Ho  Kieu,  297. 
Curves  and  angles  of,  301.  Changes 
of  wind  currents  on,  301.  Towing  of 
junks  on,  302.  Clay  bluffs  of,  in 
Hupeh,  302.  Towns  of,  302.  Im- 
mence  commerce  of,  303. 

"Head   Man,"    man   of    authority   in 


INDEX 


321 


Shensi  village,  126.  Appointment 
because  of  his  popularity  with  neigh- 
bors, 127. 

Hein  Yang,  palace  of  Chung  at,  163. 

Heo  Mah,  in  Shansi,  exchange  of 
ponies  in,  105. 

Hien  Fung,  Emperor,  reference  to 
reign  of,  on  Nestorian  Tablet,  264. 

History,  Chinese,  a  continuous  repeti- 
tion, 200.  Range  of  action  limited, 
200. 

Hong  Kong,  lost  to  China  through 
"  opium  war,"  64. 

Hot-air  heating,  system  of,  in  Sian,  175. 

Houses,  in  Chili,  usually  one  story  in 
height,  33.  Built  of  mud,  33.  Con- 
struction of,  in  Shansi,  52.  Resem- 
blance to  Indian  pueblos,  52. 

How  Chu,  humiliation  of,  by  Yang 
Kien,  164. 

Hua  ih,  temple  of,  115.  Built  by  Em- 
peror Kiang  Hi,  118.  Stone  me- 
nagerie of,  118.  Commingling  of 
faiths  in,  118.  Ponging  Pond  m,  119. 
Construction  of  Buddhist  temple  at, 
119.  Tablets  of,  120.  Tablet  of 
Hung  Wu's  dream  in,  252.  Tablet 
of  Sieh  in  temple  of,  254. 

Hua  Shan,  sacred  mountain  between 
Tung  Kwan  and  Sian,  115. 

Hue,  Abbe,  references  of,  to  Sian,  185. 
Description  by,  of  Nestorian  Tablet, 
261. 

Hung  Wu,  Emperor,  rebuilt  walls  of 
Sian,  158.  His  dream  of  Hua  Moun- 
tain, 252.  Overturned  dynasty  of 
Kublai  Khan,  253.  Subdued  Corea 
and  Burmah,  253.  Dream  impressed 
on  memory  of,  253.  Guided  by  white 
rabbit,  253. 

Huto  River,  crossing  on  way  to  Tai 
Yuan,  36. 

Hwang  ti,  makes  Sian  capital,  162. 
Discussions  of  his  reign  in  Sian,  166. 

Hwuyluh,  centre  of  mining  industry  of 
North  China,  38. 

Idol(s),  procession  of,  in  Ping  Yang,  95. 
Prostration  of  people  before,  95. 
Occasional  outing  necessary  for 
health  of,  95.  Exceptional  absence 
of  spiritual  element  in  procession  of, 
at  Ping  Yang,  96. 


Inn(s),  uninviting  character  of,  22. 
Wenshao  great  help  in  avoiding,  22. 
Ot  Fu  Shin,  121.  Pajier,  window- 
panes  of,  121.  Economy  of  manage- 
ment of,  121.  In  Tsingling  Moun- 
tains, noise  and  dirt  of,  274.  Fond- 
ness of  proprietors  of,  for  telling 
marvellous  stories,  275. 

Islands,  Cosmopolitan,  that  belong  to 
common  humanity,  159. 

Japanese,  a  term  of  reproach  in  China, 
70. 

Ja  Shu,  town  in  Shansi,  69. 

Junks  on  Han  River,  divisions  into 
cabins,  301.  Dining  room  of,  301. 
Modem  captain  of,  301.  Clumsy 
sails  of,  301.  Towed  from  mast-peaks 
of,  302.  Capacity  of,  for  carrying 
freight,  303.  Great  number  of,  303. 
Flimsily  constructed,  303.  Ingenuity 
in  Stowing  cargo  on,  304,  Sails 
made  of  cotton  cloth,  304.  Method 
of  carrying  lumber  on,  304.  Means 
of  livelihood  to  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  families,  304.  War-junks, 
305-307. 

Ka-chau,  reference  to,  by  Marco  Polo, 

184.     Location  of,  undiscovered  by 

commentators,  184. 
Kaifeng,    ultimate    meeting-place    of 

railroad  lines,  12. 
Kalgan,  rest  near,  in  Imperial  exile, 

202. 
Kao-ling,  Roman  Catholic  mission  in, 

185. 

Kao-Tsung,  account  in  Nestorian  Tab- 
let of  friendliness  of,  to  Christianity, 
263. 

Kenzan,  described  by  Marco  Polo, 
183.     Supposed  to  be  Sian,  183. 

"  Kiang  Hi  Blues,"  collected  by  rich 
men  in  Sian,  175. 

Kiang  Hi,  Emperor,  built  temple  at 
Hua  ih,  118. 

Kiehiu,  strange  town  in  Shansi,  88. 
Architecture  media-val  German,  88. 
Two-story  houses  of,  83.  Labyrin- 
thine streets  in,  88.  Walking  through 
the  maze  of,  89.  Court-yards  with- 
out gates,  89.  Plan  of  design  of 
streets,  90.     A   Chinese   puzzle,  9a 


322 


INDEX 


Boxer  of,  and  his  address  to  Em- 
press Dowager,  207.  His  decapita- 
tion, 207. 

Kingtse  Kwan,  town  on  Han  River, 
294.  Former  missionary  activity  in, 
294. 

Kuanchung,  name  given  to  Shensi  by 
Yu,  162. 

Kublai  Khan,  proclaimed  Emperor  of 

^  China  and  Mongolia.  99.  Gave 
Chinese  name  to  dynasty,  99.  Ad- 
miration of,  for  Chinese  civilisation, 
99.  Makes  Pekin  capital,  165. 
Siege  by,  of  Fan  Ching  and  Siang 
Yang,  308. 

Kung  Kwans,  official  hotel  controlled 
by  Mandarin,  23.  Architecture  of, 
24.  Substantial  construction,  24. 
Few  less  than  a  hundred  years  old, 
24.  Of  Shansi,  renovated  for  Em- 
press Dowager's  arrival,  88. 

Kuo  Tze  Chien.  See  University  of 
China. 

Kwang  Su.     See  Emperor  of  China. 

Kwang  Wu  Ti,  capture  of  Sian  by, 
164. 

La  Ho  Kieu,  river  town  of  Hupeh, 
297.  Commerce  of,  297.  Stone 
wharves  of,  297.  Silk  industry  of, 
298-299. 

Land  System  of  Shensi,  small  hold- 
ings under,  129.  Land  remains  in 
one  family  for  generations,  129.  Ad- 
vantages and  disadvantages  of,  129. 
Prevents  idleness  and  ambition,  130. 
Prevents  any  other  industry  than 
agriculture,  130. 

Lan  tien,  at  base  of  Tsinglings,  269. 
Visited  in,  by  two  mandarins,  269. 

Lees,  Jonathan,  travelled  through 
Shensi,  185. 

Legge,  James,  Professor,  reference  of, 
to  Sian,  185. 

Li,  measure  of  time,  not  distance,  32. 

Li  Hung  Chang,  informed  of  death  of, 
128. 

Li-King,  internal  revenue  toll  on  riv- 
ers, 309.     Encountering   station   of, 

309.  Payment  of,  by  captain  of  tug- 
boat, 310.     "  Mean  man  "  of  station, 

310.  Yielding  of  "  mean  man  "  to 
Prince  Ching's  card,  310.    Gratitude 


of  captain  for  assistance  of  Prince 
Ching's  card,  310. 

Linshi  Pass,  in  Shansi  Mountains,  90. 
Difficulties  of  passage  through,  90. 
Roads  through,  repaired  by  soldiers 
lor  Empress  Dowager,  90.  A  de- 
fence of  Sian,  91. 

Lintoun,  sulphur  springs  and  cave,  152. 
Age  of,  152.  Lake,  shrubbery,  and 
pavilions,  152.  Balustrade  over 
yellow  water,  152.  Variegated  roofs 
of  pavilions,  153.  Play  of  colour, 
153.     Obscurity  of,  in  hidden  land, 

153.  Loss  of  money  during  stay  in, 

154.  Grave  of  Chung  near,  163. 
Distribution  in,  of  American  famine 
relief  fund,  238. 

Lions  at  gate  of  Palace,  Sian,  their 
age,  211.  Their  cheerful  aspect, 
211. 

Li  Shao  Fen.   See  Governor  of  Shensi. 

Li  Tsi  Chung,  rebellion  of,  against 
Ming  dynasty,  165.  Capture  of 
Sian  by,  165.  Founds  new  dynasty, 
165.  Takes  Pekin,  165.  Last  stand 
in  Sian,  165.     Death  of,  165. 

Liu,  Prince  of  Han,  set  up  an  inde- 
pendent monarchy,  78.  Made  Tai 
Yuan  his  capital,  78. 

"  Long  Lived  Benevolence,"  palace 
of,  built  by  Yang  Kien,  164. 

"  Loss  of  face,"  disgrace  for  life,  144. 

Lowban,  captain  of  Han  River  canoes, 

285.  Habit  of  singing  to  wind  spirit, 

286.  His  dislike  of  discussing  dis- 
tances, 288. 

Lui-tsu,  invented  silk  weaving,  162. 

Lumber,  method  of  carrying  through 
Tsingling  Mountains,  273.  Making 
catamarans  of,  on  Han  River  304. 

Lung  Ku  Chai,  distance  from  Sian, 
266.  Starting  for,  266.  Head  of  na- 
vigation of  Han  River,  266.  Arrival 
in,  281.  One  street,  281.  Exhausted 
condition  on  reaching,  281,  Shal- 
lowness of  river  near,  283. 

Mafu,  combines  duties  of  hostler  and 
guide,  27.  Of  Ja  Shu,  70.  Care- 
lessness of,  with  stirrup-straps,  70. 
Wang's  dislike  for,  70.  Indifference 
of,  to  being  kicked,  71. 

Mail,  indefinite  idea  of,  held  by  Shan- 


INDEX 


3^3 


si  police  regarding  letters,  48.    Uses 
of  bags  of,  48. 
Manchu(s),  constitute  militia  reserve, 

102.  Compelled  to  be  proficient 
with  rifle,  102.  Supremacy  of,  re- 
cognised last  by  Sian,  166.  Com- 
ment on,  at  Sian  dinner,  197.  Noble- 
man who  "  squeezed,'  207.  Cutting 
off  head  of,  207.  Of  court,  their 
nocturnal  gaieties,  220.  Arraigned 
before  Governor  Sheng,  220.  Disre- 
gard of,  for  laws  of  Shensi,  220. 

Mandarin(s),  of  Sinlo,  35.  Treatment 
of  strangers  courteous  but  conde- 
scending, 35.  Of  Tsingling,  42.  Con- 
versation with,  42.  His  courtesy  and 
kindness,  42.  Of  Shou  Yang,  75. 
Afraid  to  meet  a  foreigner,  75.  Sent 
old  man  as  substitute,  75.     Military, 

103.  Duties  of  military  mandarins, 
103.  Military  of,  Heo  Mah,  106.  Ex- 
change of  ponies  by,  106.  Possi- 
bilities of  becoming  a  general,  io8. 
Importance  of,  in  life  of  Shensi,  141. 
Progressive  responsibility  of  system 
of,  141.  Concentration  in,  of  al'  func- 
tions of  government,  141.  Imperial 
orders  applied  through,  142.  Meth- 
ods of  concern  only  of  himself,  142. 
Absolute  power  of,  in  own  spheres 
of  action,  143.  Duty  of,  to  punish 
crimes,  144.  Penalty  for  failure  to 
execute  orders,  144.  Method  of  ap- 
pointment  of,    144,     Promotion   of, 

144.  Efforts  of,  to  maintain  "  Peace," 

145.  Aim  of,  to  keep  district  in  same 
condition  as  found  it,  145.  "Squeez- 
ing "of,  146.  Wealth  of,  1 46.  Insuf- 
ficient salary  of,  146.  Profits  of,  146. 
Government  consent  to  dishonesty 
of,  146.  System  of  levying  taxes 
by,  147.  Commissions  stolen  by 
"  Squeeze"  important  in  system,  147. 
System  of,  not  without  advantages, 

147.  Usually  only  representative  of 
government  in  districts,  148.  Subor- 
dinate officials  servants  of,  148.  Chief 
servant  of;  his  privileges  and  duties, 

148.  Writing  letters  of,  149.  Elimi- 
nation of  originality  in  correspond- 
ence of,  149  Dress  of,  149.  Button 
and  badge  of,  149.  Robes  of,  150. 
Beads  of,  at  audiences,  150.  Pleasant 


manners  of,  150.  Refinement  of,  151. 
Sense  of  humour  possessed  by,  151. 
Individual  lionour  of,  151.  Of  Lin- 
toun,  154,  Taking  prisoner  to,  154. 
Bamboo  inquisition  by,  154  Insists 
on  refunding  money,  155.  Prepara- 
tions of,  for  reception  of  Imperial  ex- 
iles, 202.  Punishable  with  death  if 
insufficient  preparation  made  by,  for 
Imperial  exiles,  204.  Of  Kiehiu,  207. 
Degradation  of,  from  office,  207. 
Famine  fund  "squeeze"  by,  235. 
Punishment  of,  235.  Presided  at  dis- 
tributions of  American  famine  relief 
funds,  237.  Sent  with  official  fare- 
well to  Mr.  Duncan,  268.  Of  Lan- 
tien,  269.  Conversation  with,  about 
New  Learning,  269.  Dislike  of  New 
Learning  by,  270. 

Mandarin  of  the  Palace,  Sian,  youth 
of,  212.  Meeting  of  author  with, 
212.  Respect  of,  for  Palace,  212.  His 
talk  of  Sichuan  and  home,  213. 
Zither  playing  of,  213.  Ideas  of 
music,  214.  Inspires  respect  for 
China  and  Emperor  by  music,  215. 
Narratives  of  exiled  court,  216.  Call 
of,  to  say  farewell,  267. 

Mang  Kola,  son  of  Kublai  Khan,  165. 
Sian  made  provincial  capital  by,  165. 
Palace  of,  near  Sian,  165. 

Marco  Polo,  reference  of,  to  Sian  Sar- 
acens, 170.  Description  of  Kenzan 
by,  183.  Author's  scepticism  of 
statements  of,  184.  Fantastic  story 
of  "  Prince  of  Dor,"  184.  Reference 
of,  to  Ka-chau-fu,  184. 

Mau  Hoa  Li,  sent  by  Genghis  Khan 
to  subdue  Shansi,  98.   Failure  of,  98. 

"  Mean  Man,"  dislike  of,  for  steamers, 
310.  Delays  tug-boat,  310.  Yields 
to  Prince  Ching's  card,  310. 

Mci  Hi,  wife  of  Emperor  Kwei,  199. 
Caused  downfall  of  Hia  dynasty, 
199. 

Mencius,  definition  by,  of  worst  possi- 
ble crime,  253. 

Mile-stones,  truncated  pyramids,  32. 
Built  of  brick,  32. 

Military  colleges,  for  officers  of  army, 
103.  Difficulty  of  obtaining  instruc- 
tors for,  103. 

Mills  in  Chili  operated  by  women,  33. 


3^4 


INDEX 


Mines,  undeveloped  mineral  wealth, 
38-39.    Iron  and  coal  near  Hwuyluh, 

38-39- 

Ming  Dynasty,  unable  to  repel  Man- 
chus,  165. 

Missionary(ies),  former  activity  in 
Paoting,  13.  Massacre  in  Paoting 
and  destruction  of,  14  ;  of  Paoting, 
forgiving  spirit  of,  16.  Saves  Buddh- 
ist temple,  16.  Of  Tai  Yuan,  79. 
For  three  days  guest  of,  79.  Massa- 
cred in  Tai  Yuan,  by  order  of  Yu 
Hsien,  80.  Collected,  by  Governor, 
80.  No  mob  violence  in  extenuation, 
80.  Of  Tai  Yuan,  83.  His  explana- 
tion of  cause  of  moon  eclipses,  83. 
Of  Shensi,  saved  from  Boxers  by 
Tuan  Fang,  126.  Of  Sian.  See  Dun- 
can. Comments  on,  by  Governor  of 
Shensi,  195. 

Mohammedan(s),  rebellion  of,  little 
known  in  the  West,  113.  Object  of 
rebellion  of,  114.  Desolation  wrought 
by  rebellion  of,  114.  Curious  con- 
versions toChristianitymadeby,ii4. 
Rebellion  of,  quelled  by  Tso  Kong 
Pao,  115.  In  Sian,  169.  Mosques 
and  schools  of,  169.  Business  deal- 
ings of,  with  other  Chinese,  169.  At- 
tempts of,  to  overthrow  reigning  dy- 
nasty, 176.  Security  of,  in  Sian,  170. 
Long  residence  of,  in  Sian,  170. 
Commentary  on  Western  civilisation 
by,  iSi. 

Mongols,  attempts,  of  to  subjugate 
Shansi,  98.  In  conquest  of  China 
absorbed  into  Chinese  civilisation, 
99.  Realised  inability  to  take  Tung 
Kwan,  no.   Dislike  of,  for  Sian,  165. 

Mounds,  custom  of  building  over 
burial-places  of  kings,  244.  Wives 
and  servants  buried  in,  244.  Burial, 
usually  oval  in  shape,  245. 

Mules,  ability  of  drivers  of,  to  dis- 
pense with  sleep,  274.  Caravans 
of,  through  Tsinglings,  armed,  274. 

Mung-tien,  General,  who  superintend- 
ed building  of  "  Great  Wall,"  44. 

Music,  conversation  with  Mandarin  of 
Palace,  214. 

Names,  Chinese,  of  author  described 
in    passport,   7.      Resemblance     of 


Shansi  and  Shensi  in  native  nomen- 
clature, 10.  Of  lower  animals  given 
to  children,  134. 

Nestorians,  Christianity  introduced 
into  Shensi  by,  206.  Scepticism  as  to 
fate  of,  264.  Sudden  disappearance 
of  religion  of,  264.  Edicts  against, 
by  "  Wu  Tsung,"  264. 

Nestorian  Tablet,  world-wide  interest 
in,  260.  Discussion  of  authenticity 
of,  260.  Useful  as  missionary  argu- 
ment, 260.  Contains  account  of 
early  introduction  of  Christianity 
into  Shensi,  260.  Discovery  of,  re- 
corded by  Alvarez  Semedo,  261. 
Descriptions  of,  by  Abbe  Hue  and 
Williamson,  261.  Present  condition 
of,  different  from  descriptions,  261. 
Surrounded  by  brick  heaps  in  neg- 
lected field,  261.  Position  of,  between 
two  ordinary  tablets,  266.  Cross 
and  inscription  at  top  of,  266.  Syriac 
inscriptions  of,  262.  Account  on,  of 
Olupun,  262.  Account  on,  of  pros- 
perity of  Nestorian  church,  263. 
Opinion  of,  held  by  Chinese  anti- 
quaries, 263.  Difficulty  of  obtaining 
impression  of  cross  on,  264.  Sup- 
plementary inscription  on,  264. 

"New  Learning,"  definition  of,  269. 
Ordered  by  Empress  Dowager  to 
be  taught  in  schools,  269.  Disliked 
by  Shensi  Mandarins,  269.  Distaste- 
ful to  Mandarins  of  Lantien,  270. 
Spirit  in  which  generally  received 
exemplified  by  two  Mandarins,  270. 

Newspapers,  a  substitute  for,  in  Im- 
perial Edicts,  223. 

Night  watchmen,  original  theory  of, 
in  Shansi,  104.  Efforts  of,  to  pre- 
vent man  guarded  from  sleeping, 
104.  Rapping  of,  on  bamboo  stick, 
104. 

Okkodai,  son  of  Genghis  Khan,  98. 
Invasion  of  Shansi  by,  98. 

Olupun,  references  to,  in  Nestorian 
Tablet,  262.  Founder  of  Nestorian 
church,  262. 

Opium,  villages  of  Shansi,  56.  Differ- 
ence from  other  villages  apparent  on 
approach,  57.  Dilapidated  houses, 
57.     Haggard,  wretched  inhabitants, 


INDEX 


325 


57.  Dislike  of  soldiers  for  villages 
given  over  to,  57.  Ravages  of,  in 
Shansi,  58.  Introduction  of,  into 
village,   58.     Experimental   use    of, 

58.  Only  object  in  life  of  villagers, 

58.  Work  neglected  for,  58.  Slow 
death  of  villagers  cursed  with,  59. 
Refuges  and  asylums  for  victims  of, 

59.  Missionary  cure  of  habit,  59. 
Report  of  Royal  Commission  on,  61. 
Absurdity  of  report,  61.  Communi- 
cation on,  of  Mr.  Duff,  62.  Chinese 
fear  of,  62.  Results  of  use  of,  62. 
Refraining  from  a  recommendation 
of  good  character,  63.  As  individu- 
als, Chinese  to  blame  for  continu- 
ance of,  63.  Subtle  fascination  of, 
for  Chinese,  63.  Traffic  in,  legalised 
by  treaty  of  Tientsin,  64.  Wen 
Hsien's  appeal  to  Queen  Victoria, 
64.  Efforts  of  government  to  pre- 
vent traffic,  64.  Suppression  of,  un- 
til imported  in  British  ships,  64. 
Laws  against  use  of,  64.  "Opium 
War,"  64.  Present  attitude  of  Chi- 
nese Government  on  question  of,  65. 
Cultivation  of,  now  permitted,  65. 
Reduction  of  Indian  revenues  by  cul- 
tivation of,  65.  Cultivation  of,  not  an 
argument  that  Chinese  desire  con- 
tinuance of,  66.  Profits  in,  retained 
by  Chinese,  66.  Victims  of,  only 
beggars  to  be  found  in  Shensi,  129. 
Degraded  condition  of  victims  of,  in 
Shensi,  132. 

Pagodas,  in  valley  of  Fen  Hoa,  97. 
Great  height  of,  97.  Method  of  con- 
struction of  monuments  to  virtuous 
men,  97. 

Palace  of  the  Exile — Sian,  former  resi- 
dence of  viceroys,  209.  Supposed 
to  be  haunted,  209.  Renovated  by 
Tuan  Fang  for  reception  of  Impe- 
rial Exiles,  209.  Ornamentation  of 
grounds  around,  210.  Sacrednessof 
residence  of  Emperor,  210.  Guards 
to  exclude  visitors,  210.  Unsafe  for 
a  foreigner  to  attempt  to  visit,  210. 
Walking  to  gate  of,  210.  Confronted 
by  lions  at  gate  of,  211.  Determina- 
tion to  enter,  211.  Entering  the 
gateway,   212.      Mandarin   of,   212. 


Author  first  white  man  to  enter,  215. 
Description  of  main  building  of,  216. 
Settee  of  Emperor,  216.  Left  wing 
of,  217.  Reception  of  mandarins, 
217.  Bamboo  bench  in,  217.  Seat 
of  honour  of  Empress  Dowager,  217. 
Timeless  clocks  of,  217.  Room  in, 
of  Empress  Dowager  in  left  wing, 
217.  Rage  of  Empress  Dowager  at 
architects  of,  217.  Quarters  of  Ta- 
a-Ko,  218.  Son  of  Prince  Tuan,  218. 
Copies  of  edicts  scattered  about,  224. 

P'an-mei,  led  army  against  Tia  Yuan, 
78. 

Pantheism,  of  Han  River,  287. 

Paoting,  capital  of  Chili,  12.  Railroad 
station  three  miles  from  town,  12. 
Population  of,  13.  Former  mission- 
ary activity  in,  13.  Massacre  of  mis- 
sionaries in,  14.  "  Punishment  of," 
15.  Capital  of  Chili,  17.  Residence 
of  viceroy,  17. 

Parade-ground,  in  Sian,  167. 

Passport,  description  of,  7.  ''Na  Ko 
Su,"  author's  Chinese  name  in,  7. 
"  Mission  of  peace,"  7.  Received 
from  Prince  Ching,  6. 

"  Peace,"  definition  of,  145.  Incom- 
patible with  progress,  145.  In  Shen- 
si, restored  by  Empress  Dowager, 
227. 

Pekin,  explanation  in,  of  dangers  of 
journey  to  Sian,  2.  Author's  ar- 
rival in,  2.  Little  knowledge  in,  of 
Sian  or  Shensi,  2.  Road  from,  to 
Sian,  10.  Made  capital  by  Kublai 
Khan,  165.  Capture  by  Li  Tsi 
Chung,  165. 

Pheasants,  present  of,  sent  to  Emperor 
in  Sian,  163. 

Piggott,  English  missionary  put  to 
death,  74. 

Ping  ti,  reign  of,  in  Sian  at  time  of 
birth  of  Christ,  164. 

Ping  Ting,  market  town  of  Shansi,  53. 
White  potatoes  sold  in,  53.  Half- 
way through  Shansi  mountain,  67. 
Soil  in  vicinity  of,  not  cultivated, 
67.    Few  dwellings  in  vicinity  of,  67. 

Ping  Yang,  in  Shansi,  91.  Capital 
during  "  Golden  Age  "  of  China,  91. 
Evidences  of  age,  94.  Peculiar  ar- 
rangement of  walls,  94.     Admirable 


2i6 


INDEX 


system  of  defences  of,  94.  Idol  pro- 
cession in,  95.  Headquarters  of 
brigade  of  army,  99. 

Plain  of  Sian,  eastern  boundary  of, 
near  Lintoun,  156.  Alkali  soil  of, 
156.  Rivers  of,  156.  Bridges  of, 
156.  A  natural  desert,  157.  Ex- 
cursions across,  242.  Desolation 
wrought  by  drought  and  famine,  242. 
Absence  of  human  beings  in,  242. 
Roofs  of  houses  in,  sold  for  food, 
242.  Pyramidal  mounds  of,  243. 
Description  of  mounds  and  possible 
origin,  243,  246.  Bounded  on  south- 
east by  Tsingling  Mountains,  268. 
Last  view  of,  272.  Caves  as  farm- 
houses burrowed  in,  280. 

Police  of  Shansi,  meeting  with,  45,  46, 
47.  Semi-foreign  appearance  of, 
45,  46,  47.  Their  care  of  foreigners, 
45,  46,  47.  Excellent  discipline  and 
morals  of,  45,  46,  47.  Kindliness  of, 
45,  46,  47.  Unusually  mirthful  for 
Chinese,  48.  Mail  carriers  of  Shansi, 
48. 

Ponies,  habit  of  drinking  in  crossing 
rivers,  37.  Purchase  of  one  in  Tai 
Yuan,  105.  Failure  of,  from  exhaus- 
tion, 105.  Exchange  of  one  pur- 
chased by  author  with  military 
mandarin  of  Heo  Mah,  105-108. 
Assisted  by  tails  of,  in  climbing 
Tsinglings,  271.  Time  and  place  of 
kicking,  271.  Conduct  of,  in  riding 
on  precipices,  277.  Experience  of, 
in  meeting  mule  caravan,  278.  Fear 
of  mules,  278.  Remark  concerning 
by  Shi  jang,  279. 

Poppies,  cultivation  of,  forbidden  by 
law,  64.     Now  cultivated  in  China, 

65. 

Post  Office,  institution  of  Tai  Yuan, 
47.  Absence  of,  in  Shensi,  173. 
Letters  carried  by  caravans,  173. 
Missionaries  substitute  for,  173. 
System  of,  inaugurated  by  Sir  Rob- 
ert Hart,  174.  Extension  of  system 
of,  174. 

"Praying  Trees,''  supposed  curative 
powers  of,  50,  51. 

Public  square  of  Sian,  booths  of  jug- 
glers and  fortune  tellers  in,  198. 
Punch  and  Judy  show  in,  168. 


Punch    and  Judy,  Chinese,  in  public 

square  in  Sian,  168. 
Pyramids  of  Sian  Plain,  between  SianX 

and  Wei   Ho,  243.     Made  of  clay,  ' 

243.  Shape  discernible,  243.  Seem- 
ing intention  to  have  their  sides  four 
square  with  points  of  compass,  243. 
Held  in  veneration  by  people  of 
surrounding  country,  244.  Ex- 
plained   as    burial-places   of  kings, 

244.  Explanation  inadequate,  244, 
Without  inscriptions,  245.  Appar- 
ently guarding  a  secret,  245.  Shape 
of,    rare    in    Chinese    architecture, 

245.  Suggestion  of  being  altars  of 
former  worship  of  Shang  Ti,  245. 
Conjecture  as  to  origin  permissible 
in  describing  unsolved  riddle,  246. 
Are  possible  survival  of  ancient  uni- 
versal faith,  246. 

Queen  Victoria,  asked  to  put  stop  to 
opium  traffic,  65. 

Queues,  dislike  of,  by  Han  River  boat- 
men, 286.  Wearing  of,  enforced 
by  Manchus,  2S6.  Regarded  as 
man's  chief  beauty,  286. 

Railroad(s),  struggle  for  existence  a 
hard  one,  11.  An  international  ef- 
fort, Englisli,  French,  Belgian  con- 
struction, II.  Few  passenger-cars, 
12.  Heterogeneous  freight  and  pas- 
sengers, 12.  Discussion  of,  with  Gov- 
ernor, 192. 

Rain  Storm,  experience  of,  in  Shensi, 
120.  Effect  of,  on  road,  uniforms, 
and  ponies,  120. 

River  dragon,  mysterious  being  wor- 
shipped by  Han  River  boatmen,  287. 
Similarity  to  American  Manitou,  287. 
Offerings  to,  288.  Theory  of,  ad- 
vanced by  Wang,  293. 

Roads,  in  Chili  not  public  property  as 
in  other  countries,  30.  Belong  to 
farmers,  30.  Poor  condition  of,  30. 
Sunken  by  constant  travel,  37. 
Monuments  of  continuous  civilisa- 
tion. 37.  Paved  with  square  blocks 
of  granite,  in  Shansi  mountains, 
40.  Improved  for  journey  of  exiled 
court,  87.  Between  Tung  Kwan 
and   Sian   lined   \\'ith    willow-trees, 


INDEX 


327 


113.  Along  precipices  in  gorges  of 
Han  River,  277. 

Roman  Catholics,  mission  of.  in  Sian, 
185.  Mission  of,  in  Kao-ling,  185. 
Encounters  with  Chinese,  164. 

Rung  Lu,  Lecture  of,  on  foreign  bar- 
barians, 222. 

Sacred  Mountains,  enumeration  of, 
115.  Adoration  of,  116.  Survival  of 
primitive  monotheism,  ii6  Pilgrim- 
ages to,  117.  Adored  by  men  of 
all  three  religions,  117.  Difficulty 
of  explaining  motive,  117.  Little 
known  in  the  West,  117. 

Samshaw,  raw  whiskey,  131.  Distilled 
and  sold  in  Shensi,  151.  Sold  in 
Sian,  but  not  in  saloons,  180. 

Sandstorm,  possibly  product  of  desert 
of  Gobi,  permeating  and  overpower- 
ing, 4- 

San-Kau-pa-tu,  attempt  of,  to  take 
Kai-feng,  no.  Compelled  to  make 
a  detour  through  Shensi,  no. 

San-pans,  embarking  in,  at  Hankow, 

3"- 

San  Yuan,  ravages  of  famine  in,  248. 
Embankment  where  hungry  victims 
were  buried,  248.  Famine  forgotten 
by  citizens  of,  248.  Centre  of  cotton 
trade,  249.  Cotton  cloth  imported 
to,  249. 

Saracens,  mention  of  residence  in 
Sian  by  Marco  Polo,  170. 

Schools  in  Shensi  supported  by  sub- 
scription, 135.  Teachers  in,  must 
have  passed  examination.,  135.  Il- 
literacy of  boys  exceptional,  135. 

Semedo  Alvarez,  account  by,  of  dis- 
covery of  Nestorian  Tablet,  261. 

Shang,  Shen  town  of  Tsingling  Moun- 
tains on  Han  River,  279. 

Shang  Ti,  supreme  god,  93.  Wor- 
shipped by  Yau  and  Shun,  93. 
Substitution  of  sacred  mountain  for 
worship  of,  116.  Former  worship 
of,  116.  Religion  of,  similar  to 
that  of  Hebrew  Patriarchs,  116. 
Worship  of,  now  exclusive  preroga- 
tive of  Emperor,  116.  Tendencies  to 
revert  to  worship  of,  n6.  Temple  of, 
in  Pekin,  116.  Possible  that  pyramids 
of  Sian  Plain  were  altars  to,  245. 


Shansi,  police  of,  46.  Their  duty  to 
guard  life  and  property  of  foreigners, 
46.  Dissimilarity  between,  and 
Chili,  48.  More  monuments  in, 
than  in  Chili,  49.  Villages  of,  52. 
Concentration  of  farmers  in,  52. 
Dragons  painted  on  walls  of  vil- 
lages of,  52.  Road  through  moun- 
tains of,  67.  Camels  used  as  beasts 
of  burden  in,  67.  Racial  traits  of  in- 
habitants, 86.  People  of,  devoted 
to  homes  and  close  to  nature,  86. 
Costume  of,  peculiar  to  province,  86. 
Language  of,  a  distinct  dialect,  86. 
Author's  journey  through,  87.  Few 
white  men  in  "Old  China."  Suc- 
cession of  large  towns  in,  87.  High- 
ways of,  better  than  previously  en- 
countered, 87.  Scene  of  campaigns 
of  Genghis  Khan,  97.  Valour  of  in- 
habitants in  repelling  Mongol 
armies,  98.  Night  watchmen  of, 
104. 

Sheng,  made  Governor  of  Shensi,  220. 
Young  Manchus  arraigned  before, 
220.  His  reprimand  of  Manchu 
Princes,  221.  Sustained  by  Em- 
press Dowager,  221.  Appointed  to 
have  charge  of  baggage-train  in 
homeward  journey  of  Imperial  ex- 
iles, 225.  Plot  for  revenge  against, 
by  Manchu  Princes,  225.  Wrath 
against,  of  Empress  Dowager,  225. 
Received  Imperial  pardon,  226. 

Shen-nung,  glass  stomach  of,  166. 
Hygienic  recipes  of,  166.  Free 
clinic  of,  in  Sian,  167. 

Shensi,  area  and  population  of,  i. 
Determination  of  author  to  visit,  3. 
Dangers  of  journey  to,  3.  Begin- 
nmg  journey  toward,  9.  Moham- 
medan rebellion  in,  114.  Chinese 
originated  in  valleys  of,  123.  Ra- 
cial type  of  inhabitants  of,  123.  Re- 
semblance of  people  of,  to  North 
American  Indians,  123.  Discussions 
of  ancient  events,  123.  Appellation 
of  "  Sons  of  Han,"  123.  Condescen- 
sion toward  "new"  Chinese,  124. 
Dialert  of,  different  from  Pekinese, 
124.  Dislike  of  foreigners,  tem- 
pered by  sense  of  justice,  125. 
Foreigners  to  be  despised  but  not 


328 


INDEX 


persecuted,  125.  Treatment  of 
foreigners  during  Boxer  outbreak, 
125.  Villages  of,  126.  "  Head 
men  "  of  villages,  126.  Liberty  of 
speech  and  action  contrary  to  pre- 
vailing belief,  127.  Political  discus- 
sian  of  inhabitants  of,  127.  Absence 
in,  of  condition  of  "poverty,"  128. 
Relative  equality  of  wealth  in,  128. 
No  shops  in  villages  of,  129.  Work 
of  women  of,  129.  Land  system  of, 
129-130.  Dislike  in,  of  bathing  or 
washing,  131.  Temperance  of  peo- 
ple of,  131.  Impurity  of  water  in, 
132.  Children  of,  132-135.  Schools 
and  school-teachers  of,  135.  Thea- 
tres of,  136.  Funerals  in,  137. 
Banished  criminals  in,  139.  Con- 
versation with  a  murderer  of,  140. 
Called  Kuanchung  by  Yu,  162.  Ab- 
sence of  post-offices  in,  173.  Dis- 
like of  farmers  of,  for  telegraph  wire, 
174.  Climate  too  cold  for  cultiva- 
tion of  mulberry-trees,  185.  Travels 
through,  of  Jonathan  Lees,  185. 
View  held  in,  of  Chinese  Exclusion 
Act,  198.  View  of  Imperial  exile, 
203.  Distressed  condition  of,  on  ar- 
rival of  Empress  Dowager,  226. 
"Peace"  in  province  when  Em- 
press Dowager  left  it,  227.  Loess 
soil  of,  turns  to  desert  from  lack  of 
water,  229.  Climate  of,  same  as 
Northern  Ohio,  247.  Parting  with 
last  trace  of,  at  l>a  Ho  Kieu,  300. 

Shen  Tun  Ho,  head  of  Shensi  foreign 
office,  80.  Friendliness  of,  to 
foreigners,  81.  Incurred  hostility  of 
anti-foreign  party,  81.  Instituted 
Shansi  police  and  post-office,  81. 
Interview  with,  81.  Liking  of,  for 
America,  82.  Attempt  of,  to  incul- 
cate sense  of  honour  in  soldiers,  82. 

Shih  Hwang-ti.     See  Chung,  163. 

Shijang,  sergeant  of  soldiers,  46. 
Coolness  of,  on  meeting  mule  cara- 
van, 278.  Remark  of,  on  Chinese 
ponies,  279.  Specimen  of  Chinese 
soldier,  279. 

Shop  of  the  Metropolis,  department 
store  of  Sian,  171.  Absence  of 
foreign-made  goods  in,  171. 

Shops  of  Sian,  absence  of  bazaar,  ef- 


fect in,  170.  Substantial  character 
of  merchandise  sold  in,  170. 

Shou  Yang,  demonstrative  reception 
in,  73.     Mistaken  for  missionary,  73. 

Shrines,  on  the  roadsides,  71.  Confu- 
cian, Buddhist,  and  Taoist  faiths 
commingled,  71.  A  protection 
against  devils  rather  than  places  of 
worship,  72.  Cared  for  by  owner 
of  land,  72. 

Sian,  capital  of  Shensi,  i.  Place  of 
exile  of  Empress  Dowager  and  Em- 
peror, I.  Conservative  and  foreign 
hating,  i.  Journey  to,  divided  into 
four  stages,  10.  Reached  by  three 
routes,  91.  Inaccessibility  of,  91. 
First  glimpses  of  its  walls,  157. 
Their  resemblance  to  hills,  157. 
Suburbs,  159.  Entering  the  city, 
159.  First  impressions,  160.  A  ride 
through  streets  of,  160.  Signs  of 
life  and  activity  in,  160.  Outline 
of  history  of,  162.  Last  place  in 
China  to  recognise  supremacy  of 
Manchus,  166.  Charm  of  its  eter- 
nity, 166.  Fascination  of,  for  Euro- 
pean or  American,  166.  Anecdotes 
of  early  rulers  told  in,  166.  Site 
of  palace  of  Chung  in,  167.  Popula- 
tion of,  167.  Regular  arrangement 
of  streets  of,  167.  Comparison  of, 
with  Pekin,  168.  Residence  in,  of 
Governor  of  Shensi,  168.  Public 
square  of,  168.  "  Story  tellers  "'  in 
public  square  of,  169.  Mohamme- 
dan quarter  of,  169.  Tolerance 
toward  Islam  in,  169.  Marco  Polo's 
reference  to  Saracens  in,  170. 
Broadway  of,  170.  Shops  of,  170. 
Centre  of  fur  trade,  171.  "  Shop  of 
the  Metropolis  "  in,  171  Banks  of, 
171.  Absence  of  post-office  in,  173. 
Telegraph-office  of,  174-175.  Resi- 
dence of  rich  men  of,  175.  System 
of  hot-air  heating  in,  175.  Coal  as 
fuel  in,  175.  Clubs  of,  176.  So- 
ciety in,  177.  Evening  dinner  par- 
ties in,  178.  Condition  of,  at  time 
of  author's  visit,  178.  Sufferings 
of,  from  famine,  178.  Absence 
of  "Poor  Quarter,"  "Necessary 
Evils"  and  "submerged  tenth,"  in, 
179.  Gulf  between  rich  and  poor  not 


INDEX 


329 


so  wide  as  in  New  York,  179.  Sup- 
pression of  gambling-houses,  180. 
Author's  surprise  at  not  finding  nec- 
essary evils  in,  182.  Important  part 
played  by,  in  Chinese  history,  183. 
Visited  by  few  white  men,  183.  Inse- 
curity as  place  of  residence  for  for- 
eigners, 183.  Supposed  to  be  Marco 
Polo's  "  Kenzan, "  183.  Reference  to, 
by  Abbe  Hue  and  Professor  Legge, 
185.  Roman  Catholic  Mission,  185. 
Arrival  in,  of  Mr.  Duncan,  185.  Anti- 
foreign  order  in,  186.  Centre  of 
anti-foreign  element  during  stay  of 
Empress  Dowager,  187.  Kindli- 
ness and  consideration  in,  shown  to 
author,  187.  Again  made  capital 
by  Empress  Dowager,  202.  Palace 
of  the  Exile  in,  209.  Description 
of,  and  author's  visit  to,  210-223. 
Crowded  with  famine  sufferers,  230. 
Hall  of  Tablets  in,  255.  Departure 
from,  266.     Last  view  of,  272. 

Sianese,  curiosity  of,  on  first  sight  of 
author,  160.  Reckless  reference  of, 
to  lapses  of  time,  166.  Prejudices 
of,  against  Post-office,  174.  Dislike 
of  frivolous  amusement,  178.  Ceased 
to  regard  Mr.  Duncan  as  foreigner, 
186. 

Siang  Yang,  on  Han  River  in  Hupeh, 
307,  Withstood  siege  by  Kublai 
Khan,  308.  Surrendered  to  Mon- 
gols, 308.  Residence  of  retired 
mandarins,  308. 

Sichuan,  home  of  Mandarin  of  Palace, 
213. 

Sieh,  flourish  of,  in  making  character 
for  happiness,  254. 

Silk,  weaving  of,  invented  by  Lui-tsu, 
162.  Said  by  Marco  Polo  to  be  an 
industry  in  Sian,  184.  None  in  Sian 
at  present  day,  184.  Description  of 
industry  in  La  Ho  Kieu,  298.  Shops 
for  sale  of,  298.  Indifference  of  pro- 
prietor to  sale  of,  298.  Age  of  in- 
dustry, 299.  Similarity  of  Chinese 
methods  of  weaving  to  American 
looms,  299.  Heavy  texture  of, 
299. 

Sinlo,  reception  by  mandarin  of,  35. 
Conversation  about  "  American  Em- 
peror," 35. 


"  Society,"  in  Sian,  177.  Absence  of 
women  in,  177.  Age  of  family  trees, 
177.  Characterised  by  pride  in  an- 
cestors, 177. 

Soldier(s),  Chinese,  of  Shansi,  99. 
Opium  habits  of,  99.  Peculiar  arma- 
ment of,  100.  Scarcity  of  cartridges 
among,  100.  Attempts  of,  to  kill  an 
eagle,  100.  Meeting  returning  regi- 
ments of,  100.  Weapons  of,  without 
ammunition,  loi.  Grotesque  ap- 
pearance of,  101.  Straggling  march- 
ing order  of,  joi.  Captain  of,  who 
had  travelled,  loi.  Patience  and 
endurance  of,  102.  Fear  of  devils 
by,  102.  Reformation  in  army  meth- 
ods, 102.  Military  colleges  for  of- 
ficers of,  103.  Shijang  of  Tsinglings, 
specimen  of,  279.  Amusement  af- 
forded by,  to  foreign  subalterns,  279. 
Capabilities  of,  279. 

Sons  of  Han,  term  to  designate,  123. 
People  of  Shensi,  123.  Governor  of 
Shensi,  ruler  of,  191.  Intention  to 
impress  with  China's  victory  over 
barbarians,  224.  Allowed  to  gaze 
on  faces  of  sovereigns,  224.  For 
thousands  of  years  had  crossed  Plain 
of  Sian,  272. 

"  Squeeze,"  definition  of,  146.  Incen- 
tive to  office  holding,  146.  System 
of,  by  mandarins,  146.  Tacit  consent 
of  government  to,  146.  Integral  part 
of  mandarin  system,  147.  Of  famine 
funds  stopped  by  Empress  Dowager, 

ass- 
Steam  tugboat  on  Han  River,  embark- 
ing on,  at  Yo  Kia,  309.  Young  cap- 
tain of,  309.  Discussion  of  time 
necessary  to  reach  Hankow,  309. 
Anchorage  opposite  Li-king  station, 

309- 

Stone  curtain  on  hill-top,  53.  Scene  it 
revealed,  53-54- 

Story-teller,  in  public  square  of  Sian, 
169,  burlesque  of  aged  mandarin, 
169. 

Streets  of  Sian,  regularity  of  arrange- 
ment of,  167.  Contrasted  with  other 
Chinese  cities,  167. 

Suburbs  of  Sian,  cosmopolitan  resem- 
blances, 159.  Schools  and  temples 
of,  159.     Absence  of  shops  in,  159. 


33^ 


INDEX 


Su  Kou,  town  in  Shansi,  83.     Wang's 

comment  on  moon  at,  83. 
Sunday,  not  day  of  rest  in  Tai  Yuan,  76. 

Ta-a-Ko,  quarters  of,  in  Sian  Pal- 
ace, 219.  Son  of  Prince  Tuan,  218. 
Former  Crown  Prince,  218.  Joined 
exiled  court  in  Sian,  219.  Leader 
of  Manchu  "Younger  Set,"  219. 
China's  "  Bonnie  Prince  Charlie," 
219.  Gaieties  and  adventures  of, 
219.  Incurred  dislike  of  Empress 
Dowager,  219.  Dismissal  from 
Court  by  edict  of  Empress  Dowa- 
ger, 220.  Returned  to  Father  in 
Turkestan,  220.  Disgrace  of,  soon 
after  plot  against  Sheng,  226. 

Tablet(s),  stone,  around  temple  of 
Hu  ih,  120.  Sale  of  rubbings  of, 
120.  Found  all  over  China,  251. 
Variety  of  inscriptions  of  different 
ages,  251.  Part  of  ancestor  wor- 
ship, 251.  Expression  of  the  soul  of 
Chinese,  251.  Records  of  individual 
thought,  252.  Expression  of  soul's 
light,  252.  Charm  of,  252.  Indica- 
tion of  repressed  fires,  252.  Impres- 
sions of,  sold  to  pilgrims,  252.  In- 
scription on,  of  Hung  Wu,  254. 
Happiness,  254.  Flourish  made  by 
Sieh,  254.  Inscription  by  Hew  Kwo 
Tung,  255.  Happiness  monogram 
of  Chen  Toun,  255.  Oldest  collec- 
tion of,  in  Hall  of  Tablets,  Sian, 
255.  Of  especial  merit  in  Hall  of 
Tablets,  256.  Silence  inspired  by 
age  and  beauty  of,  in  Hall  of  Tab- 
lets, 257.  Of  the  chrysanthemums, 
258.  Portrait  of  Tama  on,  259.  In- 
scription to  Tama  on,  259.  Nes- 
torian  (q.  v.)  description  of,  and  au- 
thor's visit  to,  260-265. 

Taels,  lumps  of  bullion  silver,  28. 
Payments  of,  made  by  weight  not  by 
count,  28. 

Tai  Tsung,  rebel  dynasty  founded  by 
Le  Tei  Chung,  165.  Led  army 
against  Prince  of  Han,  78.  "The 
Glorious "  reigned  in  Sian,  164. 
Drove  back  barbarians,  164.  Found- 
ed University,  164.  Expression  of 
wisdom  of,  164.  Virtues  of,  described 
on  Nestorian  Tablet,  262. 


Tai  Yuan,  capital  of  Shansi,  15.  Es- 
caped ''punishment"  only  on  ac- 
count of  inaccessibility,  15.  Popula- 
tion and  business  of,  77.  Irregular- 
ity of  streets  in,  77.  Siege  and  capt- 
ure of,  by  Emperor  Tai  Tsung,  78. 
Defended  by  Liu,  Prince  of  Han, 
78.  Extreme  hatred  in,  of  foreign- 
ners,  78.  Eclipse  of  the  moon  dur- 
ing stay  in,  82.  Noise  to  scare  away 
dragon,  82. 

Tama,  Buddhist  apostle,  259.  Portrait 
of,  on  tablet,  259.  Inscription  re- 
garding, 259.  Impressionist  methods 
in  portrait  of,  260. 

Tang  Dynasty,  reigned  in  Sian,  164. 

Ta  Tsin,  name  given  to  Christ  on  Nes- 
torian Tablet,  262. 

Tea-houses,  lounging  places  in  Shensi 
villages,  127.  Places  for  discussions 
of  politics,  127. 

Telegraph,  Chinese  Imperial,  office  of, 
in  Sian,  174.  At  first  little  used,  174. 
Extension  of  system  of,  174.  Par- 
tially destroyed  by  Boxers,  174. 
Imperial     edicts   transmitted    over, 

174.  Disliked  by  farmers,  174.  In 
Sian  used  by  Empress  Dowager,  175. 
Sian  operator  of,  who  spoke  English, 

175.  Operator  of,  belated  on  Han 
River,  290. 

Temple(s),  destruction  of,  in  Paoting, 
15.  Usually  built  of  brick,  34. 
Idols  in,  34.  Of  Yau  and  Shun  in 
Ping  Yang,  93.  Rebuilt  by  present 
Emperor,  93.  Statues  of  founders 
in,  93.  Notable  absence  of  idols  in, 
93.  Marking  source  of  Han  River, 
276. 

Terraces,  on  side  of  Shansi  Mountain, 
51.  Labour  of  construction  of,  51. 
Absence  of  human  beings  in,  51. 

Theatre  (s),  play  at  great  event  in 
Shensi,  136.  Description  of,  136. 
Noise  of  performance  in,  136.  Im- 
portance in  social  life  of  village,  137. 
Scene  of  flirtations,  137.  Disparaged 
in  Sian,  178. 

Ting,  terminus  of  railroad,  19.  Escort 
from,  of  soldiers,  19. 

Tortoise,  high  place  held  by,  in  Chi- 
nese mythology,  49.  Emblem  of 
immortality,  49.      System  of  drain- 


INDEX 


33^ 


age  derived  from  marks  on  back  of, 
162. 

Transportation,  Chinese  argument 
against  improvement  in  method  of, 
304.  Thousands  of  families  depend- 
ent on  present  system  of,  304. 
Would  be  thrown  out  of  employ- 
ment by  change  in  method  of,  305. 
No  new  avenue  of  industry,  method 
of  change,  305,  Result  of  changes 
in  methods  of,  on  Pei  Ho  River,  305. 

Travel,  system  of,  illustrative  of  Chi- 
nese character,  19.  Completeness 
of,  19.  Brick  beds,  20.  Protection 
afforded  by  Prince  Ching's  card,  20. 
Freedom  and  security  of  traveller, 

20.  The  Wenshoo  and  its  privileges, 

21.  The  horrors  of  inns,  22.  Kung 
kwans,  official  inns,  23.  Descrip- 
tion of  kung  kwans,  23.  Food  on 
journey,  26.  Intricacies  of  money 
system,  27.  Hours  of  travel,  27. 
The  manfu  and  his  duties,  27.  Meth- 
ods of  crossing  rivers,  36.  Through 
Tsinglings  described,  267.  Lighten- 
ing of  luggage  for,  267. 

Treaty  of  Tientsin,  sale  of  opium  legal- 
ised by,  64. 

Ts'ing  dynasty,  end  of  opposition  to, 
166. 

Tsingling  Mountains,  boundary  of 
Plain  of  Sian,  268.  Water-shed  of 
China,  268.  Source  of  Han  River, 
268.  Abrupt  beginning  of  trail 
through,  270.  Climbing  assisted  by 
pony's  tail,  271.  View  from,  of  Sian 
and  Plain,  272.  Few  inhabitants  in, 
272.  Loneliness  and  silence  of,  273. 
Foot  passengers  in,  273.  Method  of 
carrying  lumber  through,  273.  Bri- 
gands of,  273.     Armed  caravans  in, 

274.  Habits  of  muleteers  in,  274. 
Meals  at  farm-houses,  275.  Weari- 
ness from  continuous  riding  through, 

275.  Jaguars  and  wolves  in,  275. 
Inn-keepers  of,  275.  Resemblance 
of  dogs  of,  to  wolves,  276.  Discov- 
ery in  of,  one  of  the  sources  of  Han 
River,  276.  Windings  of  Han  River 
through,  277.  River  gorges  in,  277. 
Refuge  caves  in,  280. 

Tsingting,  town  of  Shansi  divided  by 
tributaries   of  the   Huto,   41.     Last 


stop  in  Chili,  41.  Stone  bridge  of, 
41.     Clever  mandarin  of,  42. 

Tso  Kung  Pao,  Mohammedan  rebel- 
lion quelled  by,  115.  Lack  of  food 
and  money  for  army  of,  115.  Plant- 
in.'/  of  willow-trees  by,  115. 

Tsz'  Hi.     See  Empress  Dowager. 

Tuan  Fang,  former  Governor  of  Shen- 
si,  125.  Manchu  prejudices  of,  125. 
Advised  not  to  kill  missionaries,  125. 
Moral  courage  of,  126.  Saved  mis- 
sionaries, 126.  Moral  support  given 
to,  by  people  of  Shensi,  126.  Made 
Governor  of  Hupeh,  220.  Famine 
relief  committee  appointed  by,  231. 

Tumn,  Prince,  leader  of  Boxers,  78. 
Fame  of,  in  Tai  Yuan,  78.  Banish- 
ment of,  to  Turkestan,  78. 

Tung  Kwan,  first  glimpse  of,  109.  Im- 
pregnable position  of,  109.  Battle- 
ments and  citadel  of,  109.  Key  to 
three  provinces,  no.  Crossing  Yel- 
low River  to,  in.  Entering  town 
of.  III.  Four-wheeled  carts  of,  112. 
Junction  point  of  Wei  Ho  and  Yel- 
low River,  113.  Death  near,  of 
Chwang  Leih  Ti,  166. 

Turkestan,  place  of  banishment  of 
Prince  Tuan,  78. 

University  of  China,  founded  by  Tai 
Tsung  in  Sian,  164.  Huo  Tze 
Chien  formerly  in  Sian,  256.  Con- 
tained thirteen  classics  of  Confucius, 

256.  Under  patronage  of  Emperor, 

257.  Transferred  to  Pekin,  257. 

Viceroy  of  Chili,  his  capital  in  Paoting, 

17.     Position  once  held  by  Li  Hung 

Chang,  17. 
Von   Ketteler,    minister  to  Germany, 

78.     Killed  by  order  of  Prince  Tuan, 

78. 

Walls  of  Sian,  their  resemblance  to 
hills,  157.  Archery  towers  of,  158. 
Sianese  pride  in,  158.  Imposing 
appearance  of,  158.  Great  height 
and  excellent  preservation  of,  158. 
Rebuilt  by  Emperor  Hung  Wu,  158. 

Wang,  introduction  to,  and  engage- 
ment of,  as  interpreter,  8.  His  kick- 
ing of  delinquent  manfu,  71.     His 


33^ 


INDEX 


comprehension  of  cause  of  eclipse, 
83.  Later  expression  of  his  belief  m 
satiety  of  dragon,  83.  Remarks  by, 
occasioned  by  paper  window-panes, 
121.  His  lack  of  gratitude  to  mili- 
tary mandarin,  106.  Accompanied 
by,  in  excursions  about  Sian,  187. 
Preparations  of,  for  visit  of  Gover- 
nor of  Shensi,  193.  Remarks  by, 
of  visit  of  Governor,  194.  Colloquy, 
of,  with  sentry  at  gate  of  Palace  of 
Sian,  211.  Meeting  in  Lung  Ku 
Chai,  281.  Dishevelled  appearance 
of,  281.  Regard  of,  for  his  master's 
beard,  281.  Theory  of,  regarding 
River  Dragon,  293.  His  faithful- 
ness during  his  master's  fever,  295. 
His  ability  as  nurse,  295.  His  as- 
siduity with  blankets,  296.  His 
Chinese  character,  296.  Author's 
gratitude  to,  296.  Preference  of, 
for  civilisation  of  China,  313. 

Wang  Wen  Shau,  head  of  foreign 
office,  Sian,  221. 

War-junks,  to  maintain  order  on 
Han  River,  305.  Cleanliness  and 
trim  beauty  of,  306.  Peculiar  model 
of,  306.  Crew  and  captain  of,  306. 
Gay  uniforms  of  crew  of,  306.  Ac- 
companied by  succession  of,  306. 
Salutes  from  cannon  of,  307.  Drum 
beating  at  night,  307.  Expedient  to 
stop  noise  of,  307. 

Water,  difficulty  of  obtaining  pure,  in 
Shensi,  132.     Drinking  boiled,  132. 

Water  Buffalo,  work  of,  in  fields, 
303.  Necessity  of  daily  immersion, 
303.  Danger  ofbecoming  wild  when 
denied  water,  303.  Seen  in  Han 
River,  302. 

Wei  Ho,  river  of  Shensi,  113,  Joins 
Yellow  RiTer  at  Tung  Kwan,  113. 
System  of  irrigating  lands  in  valley 
of,  devised  by  Mr.  Duncan,  186. 
Crossing  fords  of,  between  Sian  and 
San  Yuan,  246.  Passes  through 
gorges,  246.  Former  irrigating  gul- 
leys  cut  in  sides  of  gorge  of,  247. 

Wei  Wen,  petty  official  detail  to 
execute  special  commissions,  112. 
Met  by,  at  Tung  Kwan,  112.  Cour- 
tesy of,  112.  Guide  in  entering 
Sian,  161. 


Wells,  operated  by  donkeys,  31.  An- 
cient knowledge  of,  31.  Artesian 
principles,  31. 

Wenhi,  in  Sian,  108.  At  beginning  of 
famine-stricken  country,  108. 

Wen  Hsiang,  former  prime  minister, 
65.  Sent  appeal  to  Queen  Victoria 
begging  her  to  prohibit  opium  im- 
portation, 65. 

Wen  Shao,  the  Chinese  bill  of  lading 
for  travellers,  21.  Issued  by  man- 
darins, 21. 

Widows,  Chinese,  monuments  erected 
to,  for  not  remarrying,  33. 

Williamson,  description  by,  of  Nesto- 
rian  Tablet,  261. 

Wolves,  in  Tsingling  Mountains,  275. 
Stories  of  depredations  of,  275. 

Women  in  China,  not  in  Sian  society, 
177.  Secluded  in  homes,  Sian,  177. 
Regarded  as  inferiors,  but  important 
in  history,  199.  Often  rulers  of 
China,  199.  As  Empresses  usually 
wicked,  199. 

Wu  How,  Empress  Dowager,  199. 
Most  remarkable  woman  in  Chinese 
history,  199.  Queen  of  Kau  Tsung, 
199.  Declared  regent,  200.  Ruled 
with  iron  hand,  200.  Persecuted 
Nestorians,  200.  Feared  but  be- 
loved, 200.  Career  of,  compared 
with  present  Empress  Dowager,  200. 
Fancy  as  to  her  insertion  of  chrys- 
anthemums in  tablet,  259.  Reference 
in  Nestorian  Tablets  to  persecution 
of  Christians  by,  263. 

Wu  Tsung,  Emperor,  edict  of,  against 
Nestorians,  264. 

Wu  Wang,  Emperor,  founder  of  Chou 
dynasty,  163.  Reigned  in  Sian, 
163. 

Yang  Kien,  Emperor,  reigned  in  Sian, 
164.  Reunited  China,  164.  Subdued 
How  Chu,  164. 

Yau  and  Shun,  legendary  rulers  of 
China,  92.  Ideally  good,  92.  Reign 
of  time  of  peace  and  prosperity,  92. 
Temple  of,  in  Ping  Yung,  92.  Lived 
before  idol  worship  became  prev- 
alent in  China,  93. 

"  Yellow  Emperor,"  Hwang  ti,  162. 
Makes  Sian  capital,  162. 


INDEX 


333 


"Yellow  Peril,"  182. 

Yellow  River,  separates  Shensi  from 
Shansi,  10.  Emerging  on  banks  of, 
109.  Crossing  on  ferry  to  Tung 
Kwan,  III.  Starting-point  of  Chinese 
Race,  122. 

Yo  Kia,  town  on  Han  River,  309. 
Finding  steam  tug-boat  at,  309. 

Yu  Hsien,  former  Governor  of  Shan- 
si, 79.     Planned  massacre  of  mis- 


sionary,   80.      Committed     suicide, 

•  80. 

Yu  "The  Great,''  prominent  in  early 
history  of  Sian,  162.  Stems  overflow 
of  Yellow  River,  162.  Named  Shensi 
Kuanchung,  162.  Drainage  system 
of,  derived  from  turtle's  back,  162. 

Zither,  played  by  mandarin  of  Palace- 
Sian,  314. 


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